Lefty is our family guy

On Wednesday, Phil Mickleson, golf's #2 player, held center stage.

Since this is Lefty's first tournament of the season, he was asked a myriad of questions. When asked about the status of Tiger Woods, Phil declined any type of remark stating that he and Woods are friends and that he didn't want to cross any line or compromise their friendship. There was one thing he did say about Woods.

“The game of golf needs him to come back,” Mickelson said of Woods. “But right now he’s got a lot more important things going on in his life.”

Phil's right. Golf needs Tiger, and Tiger needs golf, but Tiger also has issues to take care of first. Mickelson recognizes that. It's about family.

The biggest surprise of Mickelson's presser was when he announced that he would not be a participant in the Accenture Match Play Championships this year. He would most liklely be the #1 seed, unless there's a Tiger sighting between now and the beginning of the event.

So #1 and #2 won't be there. Why wouldn't Lefty be playing at the Match Play? We know of Tiger's dilemma.

“The Match Play is a week that my kids are out of school and that’s why I’m skipping this year, not because I want to,” Mickelson said. “It was the best week for us to have a family vacation that we had to reschedule because of our procedures.”

That family vacation had to be scrapped last year. It was around the time of that family vacation that the Mickelson's received the news of Phil's wife Amy being diagnosed with breast cancer. The time was taken for the family to get things in order.

And later on in the year, the same diagnosis was given to his mother. Lefty proved how close his family really is. And the golf world embraced every bit of it. From pink shirts at Colonial to the outpouring from well-wishers at Bethpage, last year was one the Mickelson's can't forget.

There's two reasons Phil won't forget 2009.

One was that he was 2-for-2 against Tiger at the end of the season. The other was the Phil has never forgotten what the late Payne Stewart told him.

"You're going to be a father."

Family is everything to him, and that's why Lefty is special.

It's about family.