Golf Pro Mickelson Coaches Spellings

Masters champ Phil Mickelson knows there's a lot more to golf than turf and beer. It's the fancy angles and calculations involved that wow him, and he thinks those golf traits are a good way to get kids into math and science. And now even the Education Department is interested in his joint venture, the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy, a camp that provides leadership and motivational training to grade-school teachers. We hear that Education Secretary Margaret Spellings joined Mickelson for a teacher town hall recently at the Virginia academy. The pro had Spellings demonstrate how the angle of a golf club face is really the key to sinking a putt, more important than the stroke itself. How'd she do? "Let's just say Phil didn't want to follow her act when she hit the pin on her first try," says Spellings spokeswoman Casey Ruberg.