Mickelson battling arthritis

Golf Betting Lines

08/10/2010 - Kohler, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Phil Mickelson has had a chance to overtake Tiger Woods as the top player in the world rankings in his last two starts, but hasn't gotten the job done.

Now we know that Mickelson didn't just have a few bad rounds, he was battling some physical ailments. He was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis.

He talked about his situation Tuesday in his media session at the season's final major - the PGA Championship.

"About eight weeks ago, about five days before the U.S. Open started, I woke up and I had some intense pain in some areas of my body, some joints and tendons and so forth; so much so that I couldn't walk," Mickelson described of his early symptoms.

"I ended up going back to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota right after the British Open to get a second opinion. And I have this thing called psoriatic arthritis where your immune system attacks your joints and tendons and so forth."

Mickelson went on to state that he was really only able to go all out in practice last Monday or Tuesday.

"I'm probably not as sharp as I would like to be," said Mickelson. "I had a good session with Butch [Harmon] and I believe that the game's coming around. I'm not sure again where I'll be on Thursday, but hopefully I'll be ready."

Despite this revelation, Mickelson said the arthritis did not affect his play at the British Open.

"It may have had an effect on my preparation for Europe. It didn't affect my play at The Open," he said. "I was able to prep the way I did."

Mickelson enters the week at Whistling Straits coming off a share of 46th place last week at the WGC - Bridgestone Invitational. He was a non-factor in 2009 at the PGA Championship, a year after he shared seventh place.

The 40-year-old won the PGA Championship in a Monday finish in 2005. That was his second major championship title. Earlier this year, he won his third Masters tournament, his fourth major overall.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.