DUBLIN, Ohio -- An entire generation has no idea what a beeper is, but that was the technological communication device of choice in 1999. The one inside Phil Mickelson's golf bag at Pinehurst all those years ago ended up taking on a life of its own.
Would it beep? Would Phil really leave the U.S. Open when he was in position to win his first major championship? Might Jim "Bones'' Mackay, his caddie, not tell him?
The alert from Mickelson's wife, Amy, never came. She has often joked in the ensuing years that she did all she could to keep the couple's first child, Amanda, from arriving before Phil could win that U.