Phil Mickelson can lay legitimate claim to being the second finest golfer of a generation. That standing, though, was routinely overlooked, such was the all-conquering status of Tiger Woods for so long.
When Mickelson’s name is mentioned, too frequently it is in context of those pursuits of Woods that ended in vain, rather than in recognition of 42 PGA Tour victories, five of which are major championships. Only eight players in the history of the game have a superior winning record to Mickelson. It took Woods’s recent demise for Mickelson’s achievements to be more broadly appreciated.
At 45, Mickelson remains hugely competitive at the upper echelons of his sport. Surprise at this scenario is unfounded. It would, in fact, be no shock to see Mickelson mixing it with the world’s best in a decade’s time. His talent really is so enduring, just as his fighting spirit remains unwavering.
At the WGC-Cadillac Championship, Mickelson refuses to bow to youth. A run of four second round birdies in succession, from the 5th to the 8th, catapulted Mickelson to nine under par and a three-shot lead. That advantage later vanished, courtesy of a dropped shot on 13 and a tee shot into water on the short 15th – combined with the rise of Paul Casey, Bubba Watson, Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy and others – but Mickelson remains part of the discussion with 36 holes to play.
This should not be a shock. In five events this season, Mickelson has made four cuts and finished inside the top 25 three times. At the AT&T Pro-Am, the Californian missed a 6ft putt to force a play-off; the only opportunity from such distance he had squandered during the entire tournament.
“It wasn’t so much the not winning,” he explained. “It was the searching and the frustration of knowing that I could play and compete at a certain level and not doing it – and that was the challenging thing for me to deal with.
“But now that I know that I’m on the right track and I’m starting to hit shots again with the way I used to and even better, that’s what’s exciting for me. So it’s not frustrating showing up at a golf course. It’s not frustrating if I happen to not win or fall a shot shy because I know that the next week I’m going to have another chance.
“I was nervous about the first month of the year, how the results were going to go. Was I going to play at the level that I thought I was ready to play at? And now that I am, now that I’m in contention, now that I feel much calmer and more relaxed playing and showing up on the golf course, I know it’s a matter of time.
“It would have been great to have gotten a victory early on the west coast but I just feel like each week is going to provide another opportunity whereas in the past, I felt like I was kind of hit or miss when I would show up.”
That element of the unknown resonated during a 2015 in which Mickelson’s form dipped, save a second place at the Masters that was firmly overshadowed by the procession of Jordan Spieth. Mickelson’s response was to part company with his coach of eight years, Butch Harmon.
“It really took me months in the off-season, trying to get this right,” Mickelson said. “Fortunately, I wasn’t playing in tournaments when I was going through it. I ended up hitting terrible shots for a couple of months.
“Before, I had been so manipulative through impact because the plane had been off. It’s very subtle but now, because the plane is on, I have to do very little through impact to get the ball to fade or draw.”
The prospect of combined male and female events in the US has moved closer, meanwhile, after the PGA Tour and its LPGA equivalent announced a “strategic alliance agreement” on Friday.
“This partnership between the leading men’s and women’s professional golf tours will include areas such as schedule coordination, joint marketing programmes, domestic television representation, digital media and exploring the potential development of joint events,” read a statement.
“Both organisations emphasise that while the alliance strengthens their relationship and the potential benefits of working together in these various areas are attractive for the overall growth of the sport, it involves no formal financial investment or transfer of ownership or control. Both parties remain wholly separate and independent organisations.”
