It was just a casual exchange, but it made Phil Mickelson look up from the row of autograph seekers at Doral Golf Resort & Spa.

Phil Mickelson has slimmed down and worked to get stronger so he won't lose any distance with the more compact swing he and swing coach Butch Harmon have been developing. (Jackie Ricciardi/Staff)

Yes, the even years have been good to him at Augusta, the left-hander acknowledged.

"Trying to pull a Palmer," he said.

Arnold Palmer -- an aggressive player and crowd pleaser whom Mickelson often draws comparisons to -- won his four green jackets in 1958, '60, '62 and '64. Mickelson is halfway to replicating that feat.

But after an eight-year stretch of top-10 Masters finishes, the 2004 and '06 champion wants to recover from a 24th-place finish that marked his worst at Augusta since missing his only cut in 1997.

It kind of set the tone for Mickelson's majors season, though his struggles in the others were prompted by a wrist injury suffered while preparing for the U.S. Open at Oakmont.

"I was certainly disappointed in my performance in the majors last year, and I'm excited about the upcoming majors because the changes that Butch (Harmon) and I have implemented are finally starting to settle in, and I feel very comfortable with them," he said. "So I will hopefully have a good year."

Mickelson makes it clear that his disappointing performances in the majors -- he missed the cuts at both the U.S. and British opens and tied for 32nd at the PGA -- did not mean 2007 was a disappointing year.

He did, after all, win three times on the PGA Tour, including The Players Championship and a thrilling duel with Tiger Woods at the Boston playoff event in September. He also won a fall event in China.

"Any disappointment was kind of offset, I thought, with the win at The Players," Mickelson said. "That's kind of the next best thing. And the head-to-head win at the Deutsche Bank gave me some confidence heading into this year."

Mickelson had just started working with swing instructor Butch Harmon last spring, and he acknowledged the relationship as full-time before The Players. With a year of work under his belt, Mickelson is comfortable with the direction his swing is taking. He said earlier this season that "this is the best I've felt about my game that I can ever remember" and that he can "taste" where he wants to get with it.

"This year, I feel like I'm driving it and hitting the long stuff as good as I ever had, and I'm excited for those sterner tests of golf to come along," he said of the majors. "The more penalizing events, I'm looking forward to."

Mickelson also looks significantly thinner and fitter than in recent years, which syncs with his more compact swing.

"I'm not trying to just lose weight as much as I'm trying to get physically stronger and quicker through the golf ball to accommodate changes to a shorter backswing I've been implementing in my game," he said. "I don't want to lose distance."

Mickelson won at Riviera in February, the 16th time he's won on the early season West Coast swing. But he has conditioned his game to peak at the Masters. He'll resume his preferred practice of playing the week before Augusta at Houston this year.

"There's kind of a point where all the work and the swing and the ball position and everything just kind of blends," Mickelson said. "And you stand up on the hole and you just don't even think, you just look at the pin and you swing, and the ball goes there. That's kind of the point you want to get to, but you don't want to get there until Augusta, until the week that matters."

With two advance trips to Augusta in March, Mickelson is making a serious effort at "pulling a Palmer" on the 50th anniversary of Palmer's first win.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.