Mickelson has eye on 3rd major
Lefty has no doubts about his golf goals
There are a couple of ways you can analyze Phil Mickelson's 2005 PGA Championship victory.
Half-full critique: The left-hander ran his major streak to two straight years.
Half-empty scenario: He salvaged a relatively poor major season at the 11th hour.
Either way you look at it, Mickelson doesn't mind how it all added up.
"I'll take one in four," Mickelson said. "I'll take one in four every year, especially after my first 12 years of going zero-for-four."
Mickelson again returns to Augusta National Golf Club as a reigning major winner. Last year it was as the defending Masters Tournament champion. This year it's as the last player to win a major.
Mickelson is enjoying the ride.
"I am looking forward to playing the majors again," he said. "I think what's so great about winning the PGA is I've had ... six, seven months to chill out and kind of look back on that. So it's been really a fun offseason."
In a way, Mickelson resuscitated that fun feeling with a late rally. His 2004 season - when he finished first, second, third and sixth in the four majors - was so stout that his long-awaited breakthrough seemed complete as he roared into 2005.
A 59 in the offseason PGA Grand Slam in Hawaii foreshadowed his early-season prowess with back-to-back wins at Phoenix and Pebble Beach. He added another victory in Atlanta on the eve of returning to Augusta National.
His major season, however, wasn't measuring up. He posted his seventh straight top-10 Masters finish but was never a factor. He failed to generate any momentum in either the U.S. or British opens, finishing 33rd and 60th. He arrived at Baltusrol for the season's last major with little expected of him.
"I was a little disappointed with my play because I had played so well in the majors in '04 and believed I had really dialed in a way to prepare to bring my best golf to those weeks," Mickelson said.
Everything that didn't click those other weeks came together in the heat at Baltusrol. He slept four straight nights with at least a share of the tournament lead, finally winning it Monday morning with a closing birdie on the par-5 finishing hole after chipping from the rough to within three feet.
After beating Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjorn by a shot, Mickelson didn't leap in the air like he did after breaking through in the Masters.
"(At) Augusta I was a couple of shots back and had to charge to get the lead," he said after winning at Baltusrol. "Here, I was in the lead the whole time. It was just trying to fight out through a very difficult golf course and make pars and one birdie at the end. So there certainly was a sense of relief. ... There was a lot of stress this week, with being in the lead each night and having an extra night to sleep on it."
While critics wondered whether he had lost the winning formula that he'd discovered the year before, Mickelson said his confidence never wavered.
"Before I even won Augusta, I had never really doubted that I would eventually do it," Mickelson said after the PGA. "And even after Augusta, having not won a major or come close this year, I didn't doubt the fact that it would happen again. I just didn't know when. I'm very fortunate and very pleased and excited that it was this week."
Just as winning the 2004 Masters changed the dialogue regarding Mickelson's major standing, adding the PGA the next year changed the perception. He's still in his prime and unburdened by unfulfilled expectation.
"I think that at 35, I've got a number of years left, good years left, where my game can continue to improve," he said. "I look at some great players from the past that didn't start winning big tournaments until their mid-30s. And I want to try to get better and better as my career goes on, as opposed to thinking that I've hit some milestone by making it from zero to one major or one major to two majors. That's not really where I want to focus. It's not really the results or how many trophies. It's trying to get better."
That said, Mickelson understands that he can further seal his legacy by extending his major success to the two legs he's missing - the U.S. and British opens. Only five players in history have completed the career grand slam.
"I think there are different challenges to winning each major, and I certainly am pleased to have accomplished two of those challenges," he said. "But there are two more that would show the real complete player. If you look at the guys that have won all four majors, their ability to hit the ball long for Augusta, their ability to drive it very straight and keep the ball in play at the U.S. Open, their ability to keep it low and control it with the wind at the British, it shows a complete player."
So far in 2006, Mickelson hasn't met with his typical success. For only the third time in 14 full seasons, he failed to win a tournament in either the West Coast or Florida swings. The two prior times that happened - 1999 and 2003 - he ended up with his only winless pro seasons.
"The missing factor is I've putted very poorly, and I've got to get the ball rolling in the hole better," he said. "I've hit some good shots and played well in a lot of tournaments, but I haven't been making the four- or five-footers, and I have not been making the 15- and 20-footers that I've been making the last couple of years. I don't feel like it's that far off."
Neither is his self-confidence. Winning two majors hasn't made Mickelson feel any different than he did before 2004.
"Other than maybe a few softer questions, or more nicely put questions, it really hasn't been too different," he said. "It has been fun, and it's given me two great memories to look back on and reminisce, and two nice trophies to proudly display on the mantel."
Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.
