The dream
Every time Mickelson won a tournament, his caddie carefully gathered the flag off the pin at the 18th green so Phil could present it to his grandfather. The flags were displayed on the wall of his grandfather's kitchen.
By the end of 2002, when Mickelson presented him with two more flags, Santos counted them. There were 21 PGA Tour wins. All of them special. None of them majors.
"Enough of these regular tour wins," Santos told Mickelson at the end of 2002. "Don't bring me any more flags unless it's for a major. I want the Masters up there."
Mickelson didn't collect any flags in a difficult 2003. When the family gathered for the usual post-Christmas dinner at their grandparents' home, Santos was 97 and fading. Everybody knew it was time to say goodbye.
When the dinner and the emotional tributes were done, Santos called Mickelson over for the final words he would ever say to his grandson.
"This is your year," he whispered. "You're going to win the Masters."
Santos passed away Jan. 8, 2004, 17 days before Mickelson won his 22nd PGA Tour event in his season debut at the Bob Hope Desert Classic.
Tina Mickelson, Phil's older sister, was especially close to Santos. The kind of closeness years of weekly dinners and tableside chats can form. She sobbed at the thought of her grandfather being gone.
"You will know I'm there," Santos told her. "I will come back and say hello to you in any way, shape or form that I can."
After his death, Tina Mickelson started having dreams about him. Random dreams about random things like telling her where he'd left some keys. She'd tell her mother, and sure enough the keys would be there.
"I was shown that he really was telling me things," Tina said.
So when her grandfather visited her in a dream a month before the Masters Tournament, it never occurred to her that it wasn't real. To her, it was a vision - like showing her the keys to the near future.
"He and I were standing behind the 18th green at Augusta," Tina said. "There was nobody else there. It was dead silent. Phil was the only one on the green. We knew he had to make that putt to win the Masters. It was the exact same putt he had that day - 18-footer, downhill, little bit of a break.
"I turned to my grandfather and said, 'Oh, I want him to make this so bad!' He said, 'Honey, why do you even question whether or not it's going to go in. It's going to go in. I know it is. Even if I have to help it, it's going in.' "
In his sister's dream, Mickelson's putt fell in. On April 11, 2004, the dream came true.
"The roar of the crowd was so deafeningly loud, it woke me up," Tina said of the dream. "That doesn't make sense, I know. But I remember saying to myself, 'Oh my God! He's going to win.' "
She didn't tell her brother about the dream. She didn't even tell her parents for fear it might get back to Phil and somehow jinx him. But she couldn't keep it a secret.
"I called three of my best friends and said, 'You've got to go to Vegas and put a bet down,' " she said. "He's going to win."
So Tina Mickelson walked around Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday confident she'd already seen the outcome. She never felt more sure of anything, even when her brother trailed Ernie Els by three at one point on the back nine. Even walking up the final hole, as her mother fretted about where everybody should meet in the event of a playoff, Tina kept telling her to save her energy.
"Relax, Mom," she said. "Don't worry about it. There's not going to be a playoff."
Eventually Tina reached the 18th green and sidled up to a spot to watch. As Mickelson stepped over his putt, the dream flashed back.
"This is exactly where we were standing," she said to herself. "This is exactly the putt. This is exactly the view that I had. I know you're here, Grandpa, even though I can't see you. I know this is going in."
The noise built as the ball rolled toward the hole. It started to drift left before catching the lip and curling into the cup. The rapturous eruption was as loud as anything Tina Mickelson dreamed.
Mickelson hadn't seen his sister's dream - he lived it. And when it was over and he reflected to the media, his grandfather immediately came to mind.
"It was hanging on that left lip," he said of the putt. "Instead of falling off, it caught that lip and circled around and went in. I can't help but think that he may have had a little something to do with that."
Tina still hadn't told her brother about the dream, so when she heard him mention Santos, she couldn't help but hear her grandfather say again, "Even if I have to help it, it's going in."
"It freaked me out," she said. "He brought up my grandfather and I had to leave the room. I just lost it. It was amazing."
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