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A Less Hefty Lefty
Shark.com Staff
January 22, 2007
A slimmed-down Phil Mickelson finally made his return to competitive golf at last week's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Away from the game for four months, Mickelson not only was lighter on the scale by 10-15 pounds, he insisted he's no longer lugging around any of the mental baggage from his final-hole meltdown at the U.S. Open.
"Dealing with failure is part of the game," Mickelson said. "I deal with it 90 percent of the time."
It would be unfair to call his 45th-place finish at the Hope a failure, even though he shot a 78 in the wind-blown final round. But considering he had won this event twice in the past five years and his penchant for starting fast -- he has won his first start of the season five times -- it may take a few weeks to figure out how much different the New Phil is from the Old Phil.
 | | Mickelson: "I don't feel as though I stood up physically throughout the nine months." |
Mickelson says he left the Hope satisfied with the state of his game.
"Not only have I been driving the ball much better and hitting more fairways, but I've been able to hit a variety of shots," Mickelson said. "When I do miss a fairway, it's been first-cut or a couple yards in the rough as opposed to the big misses like I had at 17 and 18 of the U. S. Open. So already in the first week out here, I've seen a difference."
Mickelson was so close to having a wonderful 2006 season. He had won the Masters for the second time and, coming off his win at the 2005 PGA Championship, Mickelson went to the 18th tee at Winged Foot needing just a par to earn his third consecutive major championship.
But his drive sailed far left, his second shot hit a tree and he eventually made a double-bogey that left him a shot behind unlikely winner Geoff Ogilvy. Mickelson believes fate played a role at Winged Foot.
"I really believe that the former presidents of the USGA that passed away were looking down and said no one should win the Open hitting two-of-14 fairways," Mickelson said. "That certainly came back to bite me and I have got to address that need."
This isn't anything new for Mickelson. When he lost the 2001 PGA Championship to David Toms by a shot, Mickelson remembers a bogey he made at the 16th hole at the Atlanta Athletic Club when he blew a long birdie try 8 feet past the hole and made a crucial three-putt bogey.
"I looked back at that event and realized my lag putting needs to improve because I'm not going to win majors if my lag putting isn't better," Mickelson said. "After imploring the help of Dave Pelz, we developed drills to improve my lag putting, and it's led to two Masters wins as well as a PGA on some quick greens."
Mickelson is using his same approach with the double-bogey at Winged Foot. Instead of just fretting over it, figure out why it happened and what's the best way to make sure it doesn't happen again.
While Mickelson appeared to be kidding with his USGA presidents comment, he knows his bad drive at 18 revealed a bigger issue: He ranked 160th on the PGA Tour last year not only in driving accuracy, but in having his drives end up in the left rough. So Mickelson has gotten Pelz and swing coach Rick Smith to come up with drills to help him improve his driving and take the left side of the course out of play.
 | | Mickelson: "My performance at the Ryder Cup was every bit as disappointing as my finish at the U.S. Open." (Steve Gibbons/USGA) |
Mickelson also admitted what people have been saying for years: He needs to get into better shape. He believes his 0-4-1 record at last fall's Ryder Cup was proof he wasn't fit enough for golf's long season.
"I don't feel as though I stood up physically throughout the nine months," Mickelson said. "My performance at the Ryder Cup was every bit as disappointing as my finish at the U.S. Open. Those two events were what made 2006 a disappointing year. Even though I won the Masters, I looked back and those two events, those were the ones that needed to be addressed. Why did that happen and what is it that I can do to fix those."
Mickelson spent the last few months working hard with personal trainer Sean Cochran to lose some of those extra pounds, and he also has cut out soda. He also plans on continuing to lift weights during the season instead of just trying to get stronger in the offseason.
Mickelson has taken his share of body blows in the majors before winning a championship each of the last three years. Each disappointment usually was followed by a bounce-back effort. Still, some wonder how many more shots his psyche can take.
"That's a big scar to have," Golf Channel analyst Nick Faldo, a six-time major champion, said of Mickelson's U.S. Open debacle.
Mickelson dismissed Faldo's comment.
"A scar happened in '94 when I broke my leg and they cut it open and stuck in a rod," Mickelson said. "That's a scar.
"Losing the Open obviously hurt, but losing the PGA in 2001 hurt, losing the Masters a number of years hurt, and losing the U.S. Open in 2004, making double on 17, hurt. That's part of the game. But it's also an opportunity to identify a weakness and improve it."
Mickelson used his downtime to launch his own design company. He's already lined up two projects, but knows his legacy will be defined by how he takes courses apart, not by how he builds them.
Mickelson plans on playing three of the next four weeks, skipping the Nissan Open, before playing Bay Hill and Doral on the Florida Swing. We will have plenty of time to know the state of Mickelson's game before he heads to Augusta National.
Mickelson was able to leave the Hope with just that -- hope that better days are ahead of him.
"I think the biggest thing is that I'm excited to play again and usually after a layoff that's what happened," Mickelson said. "My excitement level for the game comes back and I just can't wait to get started."
| The Par Report is posted every Monday on Shark.com. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Greg Norman. |
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