http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/sports/golf/michael-phelps-retirement-olympics.html 2016-09-28 03:10:10 Michael Phelps Is Calmer These Days, on the Golf Course and Off Phelps’ second Ryder Cup pro-am hardly resembled his shaky experience at his first, in 2012 — a change that is mirrored in his life more broadly. === CHASKA, Minn. — The 28-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps stepped to the first tee on Tuesday for the Ryder Cup celebrity pro-am with his driver in hand. After Phelps was introduced, he dropped his club, leaned over and executed three full arm swings and slaps, as was his routine when he stood on the starting blocks before a swim race. The boisterous crowd at Hazeltine National Golf Club, which had greeted him with a chant of “23 golds,” grew several decibels louder after Phelps’s playful gesture. If he felt any pressure to perform, Phelps did not show it. He stepped up and hit his ball straight and long. Phelps hardly resembled the person who, in his first Ryder Cup-related appearance in 2012, was so nervous that he had trouble teeing his ball for his first drive. He used a 3-wood then because he was not confident that he could get the ball airborne with his driver. He experienced a lot in the four years between home Ryder Cups, and all the experiences, good and bad, have helped Phelps to become more at ease with himself. He unretired from swimming; reunited with his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend; endured his second drunken-driving arrest in a decade; spent six weeks in a treatment center; served a six-month suspension levied by U.S.A. Swimming; and came back to win six more medals, including five golds, at the Rio Olympics. The public seems to have picked up on how different he has become. In the six weeks since his last race at the Summer Games, Phelps, 31, said he had been busier with sponsor appearances and talk-show guest spots than he was after he won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He offered this trip, with its stopover in Minneapolis, as a case in point. He traveled first to Los Angeles and had spent time in Chicago, Frankfurt, Milan and Paris. “We’re trying to figure out where we’re going tomorrow,” said Phelps, who has been accompanied by his fiancée, Nicole Johnson, and the couple’s 5-month-old son, Boomer. “We’re taking a 21-week-old baby literally on a world tour,” Phelps said with a laugh. “It’s crazy.” So, he said, is the attention he has received. In Chicago, Phelps recalled, he was walking, with no cap to cover his bed head, in search of coffee with his agent Peter Carlisle, and “I’m not kidding you, every single person was turning their head and doing double takes.” He added, “I think I’m a lot more recognizable now than I ever was in the past.” Phelps, appearing here on behalf of the watchmaker Omega, required no introduction when he spoke to the 12 U.S. Ryder Cup team members Monday night. He was a surprise guest speaker, and he talked about the thrill and privilege of representing the United States in international competition. He spoke about his 28 Olympic medals and how they do not define him as much as the experiences and relationships he forged in the process. “I kind of talked about how swimming’s an individual sport, but when we come together as a team, we really do come together as a team like no other country,” Phelps said. “No matter where we’re from, we’re all together. I think that’s something that’s really cool for me to be a part of.” He told the golfers that they were poised to realize the one goal that eluded him. “I always wanted to represent my country at a major international competition on U.S. soil,” he said. But since Phelps qualified for his first Olympics in 2000 at the age of 15, the United States has not hosted a World Championships or an Olympics. That is one regret that Phelps has carried into his second retirement. Another sure regret was averted when Phelps ignored the suggestion of his longtime coach, Bob Bowman, to forgo his favorite event, the 200-meter butterfly, in the Rio Games. Bowman thought it would be better for Phelps to save his energy for the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley, both events he was trying to win for a record fourth consecutive time. Phelps, who had been upset in the 200 butterfly in London, wanted to avenge that loss. There was no way he was going to give up that opportunity, and he suspected that Bowman knew as much. “Deep down inside, I think he wanted me to swim it,” Phelps said. “But the biggest thing was getting me in shape to swim it.” So Bowman used a bit of reverse psychology on Phelps to get him to train properly and purposefully for the 200 fly, one of his five gold medal races in Rio? “Probably,” Phelps said. “He knew I wanted that one more than anything. That one, I had to dig so deep.” Upon his return from Brazil, Phelps was digging out his closet to make room for his latest Olympic wardrobe when he came across his 2016 goal sheet. He had achieved his target time in the 100-meter freestyle on the relay. “That’s the only time I hit,” he said ruefully. Phelps fired off a text to Bowman. He explained that he had found his goal sheet and that it appeared he had some unfinished business in the pool. Bowman was quick to reply. “Let it go,” he wrote, and added a smiley-face emoji with sunglasses for emphasis. Bowman’s response made Phelps laugh. The truth is, he is happy to be done with his life as a competitive swimmer. Phelps wants to advocate water safety, spread his passion for swimming all over the world and grow his family with Johnson, who is planning their wedding. “The list of things I want to do,” Phelps said, “is a mile long.” It includes golf, but this time, so much more.