Mickelson's generous gesture should be lauded

If you need another reason to like Phil Mickelson, here’s one:

After learning about the difficulties encountered by former NFL player Conrad Dobler and his family, Mickelson – who’s never met any of the Doblers – has offered to pay the college tuition for Holli Dobler, a sophomore at Miami of Ohio.

Mickelson didn’t do it for the attention. He politely declined to talk specifics recently when Golf World’s Bob Verdi asked him about his actions. It’s not about doing something for publicity. It was about doing something nice for someone in need – and Mickelson has done it more often than we know.

Dobler’s story is this: The former NFL tough guy’s wife fell out of a hammock nearly six years ago and has been paralyzed since. With six children and no retirement money coming from the NFL, Dobler’s finances have been stretched to the extreme.

Mickelson heard about it, took care of Holli Dobler’s tuition and the families will finally meet at The Memorial Tournament in Columbus, Ohio in May.

It was an extraordinarily generous gesture by Mickelson.

And since we’re on the subject of Mickelson, he’s the choice to keep his roll going this week at the Nissan Open in Los Angeles.

I almost got it right last week at Pebble Beach where I picked a left-hander – just the wrong one.

Maybe I’ll get the right Lefty this week.