The golfing gods have weighed in on Phil Mickelson’s Self-Massacre at Winged Foot

Arnold Palmer, who often DID play the same way, said he would have played No. 18 exactly the way Phil did.

Arnie had it even worse than Phil, giving up seven shots on the back nine at hometown-area Oakmont in the 1962 Open. He bounced back, though, and thinks Phil will.

“Losing only made me more determined to win. ... I don’t know many players who have won majors who haven't at some point had the same thing happen to them. Whether it's Nicklaus, Player, Snead, Hogan. I've done it numerous times. Some guys I suppose never recover. ... But I think Phil will.”

Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson have a different perspective though, coming in part from them being more conservative than Arnie, perhaps.

They both said, in essence, what was Phil thinking?

Of Phil’s second shot, they said:

"He had an easy option to get back into play? Really?" Watson asked.

"Put the ball in play. Go play golf," Nicklaus added.

Speaking about his play at the last hole in general, they had further comments.

“You don't ever give up the end of a golf tournament,” he said, adding he learned that lesson in 1963 when he picked the wrong club on the last two holes of an event he was leading and finished bogey-bogey and lost. I didn’t like that feeling and said I'd never do that again, and I never did.”

Watson won eight majors, including five British Opens. He acknowledged it’s easy to second guess but said: “What are you playing for? You’re playing to win, not be a hero. The only person you have to beat is yourself — and he beat himself. It sounds like he beat himself because he didn't play the percentage shot.”