It is true sports needs heroes and in this current age sport needs crowds.
Watching Phil Mickelson win Monday’s major was as much joy as I have had from sport for a year.
It reminded you of what great moments are, and why sport is such a critical part of our lives.
It’s odd that he broke the record for the oldest ever winner of a major at 50, especially in a world where age is less and less relevant.
But in that was part of the reason he won. Diet, fitness, and equipment they put it down to, you can do more for longer these days.
The other oldest winner of the modern era was Jack Nicklaus and he was 46, so in a way winning at the highest level has been a young man’s game for quite some time, which made Monday even better.
And it’s the mystery of sport. Alongside him for the final round brooks Koepka, 31, one of the hot guns of the new era. And yet it was Koepka who fell apart: not badly, but enough to never really be in contention.
So the question is why is 50 a real “thing” when it comes to winning in a sport like golf?  Surely at that level it’s mental and surely, given Mickelson has so much experience, he’d be the favourite.
Maybe it was a post Covid sort of thing. We were desperate for something memorable after a year of all those empty courses stadia and piped in crowd noise.
By the time Mickelson got to the final hole the crowds had gone nuts, security had lost control and Mickelson could barely get to the green.
Of course, the fact he was American helped, and it was being played in South Carolina. Americans love winners, we all love winners, and we all love a fairy tale.
Mickelson’s great burden, if you want to call it that, was he was around for a lot of the Woods era, and Woods won a lot more than Mickelson did.
Which makes you wonder if Woods hadn’t have turned up, we would we see Mickelson in a different light.  He lived in the Tiger shadow.
Which is another irony Woods won’t be back, and yet Mickelson has carried on in a sort of seen them come, seen them go kind of way.
Anyway, it was a thrill. The day started out with history to made, but a lot more start out that way than finish, which is another of sports great attractions.
You just never know, so when it plays out as though the script writer had a movie in mind, you don’t and you won’t forget it easily.