For a few hours on Sunday afternoon, the world seemed to stand still as Phil Mickelson single handily healed the entire country of the Covid pandemic. It’s been a challenging year, but as Phil Mickelson made his way up the 18th fairway onto the green, the gallery was something that no words could ever come close to describing. For the first time in 365 days, the world felt healed. It was at that moment that many across the world felt normal again. There wasn’t a mask to be seen. There weren’t greedy politicians. It was a pure moment that will forever go down in sports history as the moment that turned the page on the bad and refocused it to a much better future.

It was also the type of moment that will forever influence a future generation of sports fans, much like the days of old did for their parents. As Phil Mickelson made his way up the fairway onto the green, there was a sense that time was standing still.

Photo credits: Golfdigest.com

Not only did the sports world need that moment on Sunday afternoon, but the world needed to see all those people together, unified as one body, to fully come to terms with what we all have had to deal with for the last year and a half.

Sure, some might try to say what the gallery did on the 18th hole was wrong because Covid still exists, but to those people, I say this, the people, no matter their background, are tired of being told what to do in every aspect of their life. Sunday marked the end to the negative impact that Covid has had on the sports world as a whole.

Shortly after Sunday’s excitement came the announcements from across the country that sporting events would shortly be returning to full capacity for those who felt safe enough to attend.

Not only did Sunday’s championship round symbolize the end of Covid, but it also gave the golf world a reason to get excited again. Golf has always been a sport that honors the past and takes great pride in the good guys like Phil Mickelson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and many others, winning on the big stage.

Phil Mickelson became the oldest golfer at 50 in the history of the sport to win a Major, and for that, the entire golf world is forever thankful to Phil and everything he did this past weekend. Phil Mickelson came into the weekend a severe underdog with very little hope of actually winning, but Phil Mickelson didn’t let the odds define him. He took the field by storm and shocked the entire sports in a way that only Phil Mickelson can do.

In the words of Jim Nantz, as Phil Mickelson sank the winning putt on the 18th green:

” Step aside, father time.”

As we look back on this past weekend and what it meant to the everyday person, it will forever go down as the moment we turned the corner on the fight against all the negativity of the past year.