During final round, golfer shows skill as escape artist
Phil Mickelson finished one shot off the lead in the Masters Tournament in the third round with a series of sensational and improbable shots.
He won the tournament Sunday by staging a clinic on damage control and recovery shots at Augusta National Golf Club.
Mickelson had rounds of 67-67 on the weekend to secure his third green jacket and fourth major championship. How he logged those scores was very different each day, and it spoke to his comfort level and knowledge of the course after 18 starts in the season's first major.
To put a fine point on it: Augusta National lets Phil be Phil. Unlike a U.S. Open or British Open set-up (the two majors he hasn't won), Mickelson can afford a few mistakes that can result from the gambles he likes to take.
If the gambles happen at Winged Foot in 2006, it costs Mickelson a U.S. Open. At Augusta National, he scrambles and makes miracles happen.
"I am very relaxed at Augusta National because you don't have to be perfect," he said after his 72nd hole birdie put the finishing touches on a 16-under-par 272, three shots clear of Lee Westwood. "I hit a lot of great shots, but I made some bad swings and I was able to salvage par. I was able to get the ball, advance it far enough down by the green, where my short game could take over. That's why I feel so comfortable here."
Exhibit A: Mickelson hooked his tee shot at the par-4 ninth, which, as a left-handed player, put him in the right trees. He pitched out short of the green, knocked it on and made a five-foot par putt.
Exhibit B: Again fighting a hook, Mickelson went 30 yards deep into the trees at the par-4 10th hole. He had an opening about as wide as a bowling lane. He punched out and put a ground hook on the ball, which rolled up short of the green. As Mickelson said, he was then able to call on his reliable short game to chip the ball within easy tap-in range of a par.
Exhibit C: Mickelson pulled his tee shot at the brutal par-4 11th hole. The ball bounced off a fan and kicked back nearly to the rough. From there, Mickelson hit onto the green and two-putted with ease.
"I had an assist there," he said.
Finally, Exhibit D: Mickelson hit another slight hook at the par-5 13th hole and the ball went into the trees on the right. Most other players would have punched out and laid up.
Mickelson lined a 6-iron through a 4-foot gap between two trees. The ball cleared the water and landed on the green, four feet from the hole. It would have made a much better story had he made the putt, but the golf gods apparently weren't going to give him everything.
The second shot at No. 13 is one that likely will be replayed countless times, symbolic of Mickelson and the chances he takes -- in the same manner Arnold Palmer swashbuckled his way to four Masters titles.
"The gap wasn't huge -- it was big enough for a ball to fit through," Mickelson said, drawing laughter from the media in the post-round news conference.
The eventual tap-in birdie gave Mickelson a two-shot lead over Westwood. Mickelson faced minimal trouble after that, two-putting at Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 17 (the 15th for birdie, the 17th from five feet away for par) before his closing birdie at No. 18, when bogey would have won.
Mickelson said his game plan all along was to play Nos. 10 through 12 level, then attack the two par-5s on the second nine. When he survived the 10th and 11th holes, the birdie at No. 12 was a bonus.
"The goal is to get through (those holes) even," he said. "When I hit the shot to No. 12 in a similar spot to where I was in 2004 (his first Masters title), that's where I felt this could be my week, that I could shoot the number on the back side to get it done."
Masters mission accomplished.
