Mickelson wins his second Masters
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Phil Mickelson joked recently how he longed to walk up the 18th fairway in the final round of a major championship knowing he was going to win.
A smiling, nodding Mickelson strolled up No. 18 at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday with a three-shot lead in the 70th Masters Tournament. He bogeyed the hole -- his lone over-par hole of the final round -- but still won his second green jacket in three years with a 7-under-par 281.
South African Tim Clark finished two strokes back in second place. Chad Campbell, Fred Couples, Retief Goosen, Jose Maria Olazabal and Tiger Woods finished tied for third, three shots back.
The major championship win is the third of Mickelson's career and the first by more than a shot. He made a birdie putt on the final hole to defeat Chris DiMarco in the 2004 Masters and won the 2005 PGA Championship by a shot over Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington.
The PGA victory, which Mickelson said validated his winning his first green jacket in 2004, and Sunday's Masters win gives Mickelson two major championships in a row.
Now the golfer long saddled with the label of "best player never to win a major" is halfway to an unofficial grand slam. Tiger Woods won four straight majors in 2000 and 2001, a feat nicknamed the "Tiger Slam."
Mickelson's, then, would be a "Phil Slam."
Mickelson slammed his way to the Masters victory. Playing with two drivers all week -- one to hit left-to-right drives and the other right-to-left tee shots -- Mickelson played Augusta National's par-5s at 13-under.
And that stat came without a singe eagle -- he birdied Nos. 8 and 15 in all four rounds, No. 2 on three of the four days and No. 13 twice.
His play was a continuation of the performance he put on last week at the BellSouth Classic. Mickelson won that tournament by 13 strokes at 28-under par.
Asked midway through that victory if he thought he was peaking too soon, Mickelson said, "Good heavens no. Are you kidding me? I want to play as well as I can."
It's a good thing the U.S. Open isn't played next week then. Mickelson played 31 holes Sunday because of Saturday's weather delay and was 5-under for the day. He led after the completion of the third round at 4-under and played a nearly flawless final round to coast to the victory.
Couples' putting problems and inconsistent play by the other members of the "Big Five" -- Woods, Goosen, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els -- allowed Mickelson to enjoy his final walk.
Couples missed four putts inside six feet in his final round, two at the par-4 14th hole that turned a birdie into a bogey and essentially took him out of contention. Couples, 46, was trying to repeat Jack Nicklaus' feat of 20 years ago when he won the Masters at that age.
Poor putting also cost Woods a chance at winning back-to-back green jackets. He characterized his game from tee to green as the best he'd hit it in years. Yet he three-putted three greens, costing him a par at No. 11, a birdie at No. 12 and an eagle at No. 15.
"Once I got on the green, I was a spaz," said Woods, who has 10 major championship wins but has never come from behind for victory on Sunday in a major . "I'm probably going to snap this putter into eight pieces."
Singh might as well have broken all his clubs. He bogeyed the first hole of his final round and his scorecard had more undulations than Augusta's greens the rest of the way. He made four birdies but added three bogeys in his final round to finish at 3-under.
Els and Goosen never really had a chance in the final round -- Els because of a nagging knee injury that led to a 4-over 76 on Sunday and Goosen because of a steep deficit. Goosen closed the tournament with a 3-under 69 but Mickelson's play kept him well off the lead.
Olazabal, a two-time Masters champ, made a run similar to Goosen's on Sunday. He shot the tournament's low round, a 6-under 66, but knew he needed a few more birdies to challenge Mickelson.
"I thought I needed to go to 6-under (for the tournament) to put the pressure on these guys," said Olazabal, who got to 5-under with an eagle at the par-5 15th but bogeyed the par-3 16th and parred out. "When I three-putted on No. 16, I forced the situation on Nos. 17 and 18."
