ShareThisBy LORNE RUBENSTEIN
Toronto Globe and Mail
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Tiger Woods remains, indisputably, golf's No. 1 player, even after Phil Mickelson's impressive win Sunday at the Players Championship. However, Mickelson surely has a chokehold on the title of the game's most enigmatic golfer.
Mickelson, 36, is exceptionally talented. That's obvious. He's won 31 PGA Tour events, including the 2004 and 2006 Masters and the 2005 PGA Championship. Yet he's accomplished so much without assembling his enormous gifts into a package for any extended period. Mickelson hasn't had a season in which he's won eight or nine tournaments, for instance. Woods has, and so, for that matter, has Vijay Singh.
Something about Mickelson puts one in mind of Greg Norman, who won 20 PGA Tour events, including two British Opens. He won the 1994 Players, so he and Mickelson share that big victory. He also won some 70 international tournaments. Norman had 128 top-10s in 321 PGA Tour events, while Mickelson has posted the exact same number in 353 tournaments. The percentages are startlingly similar.
Meanwhile, Norman, whose last PGA Tour win came when he was 39, should have won at least a few more majors. That's also true of Mickelson at this point, although he could win more by the time he leaves the PGA Tour.
Some majors were stolen from Norman. Bob Tway holed out from a greenside bunker on the last hole to beat Norman in the 1986 PGA Championship. Larry Mize ran in a 110-foot chip shot to beat Norman in their playoff at the 1987 Masters. Norman can hardly be faulted for those losses.
In 1989, though, Norman drove into a deep bunker during a playoff for the British Open. He basically had no shot to the green. Norman didn't think he could reach the bunker, 310 yards from the tee. The right play in hindsight was to choose a club that, no matter how well he hit it, wouldn't put him in the bunker.
Nine years later, Norman took a six-shot lead over Nick Faldo into the last round of the 1996 Masters. He shot 78 while Faldo, with whom he was playing, shot 67 to win. Norman took more and more time over shots, and got agitated. Still, Norman, as always, stood up after the bad day and faced the media. Not all players do that.
Mickelson is one who does. He flamed out a number of times before winning his first major, the 2004 Masters. But that didn't mean he was through making self-inflicted errors at critical moments. Mickelson took a one-shot lead to the final hole of last June's U.S. Open, mangled the hole and made a double bogey. Geoff Ogilvy won.
Mickelson castigated himself as "such an idiot" after his debacle. He subsequently addressed his poor decision-making when he went for the green after driving into the trees, along with his tendency to miss fairways with his driver. A month ago, Mickelson switched from his long-time instructor Rick Smith to Butch Harmon.
Mickelson was aware that Norman, guided by Harmon, had mastered driving the ball. Harmon had also helped Woods become a good enough driver during their 10 years together, before he left him for Hank Haney.
Woods doesn't drive the ball as well since leaving Harmon, although when he's on, he's really on, maybe better than ever. But Woods isn't putting the ball in play off the tee on demand. Mickelson did that on Sunday, except for drives that he hooked on the 11th and 12th holes. Still, he shot 69 and played what he called a "stress-free" round, in which he didn't have to rely on his short game and putting.
"This tells me I'm on the right path," Mickelson said after his win. "I've gotten better each day."
Mickelson will need to find the fairway from start to finish during next month's U.S. Open at the Oakmont. His goal is to eliminate one side of the course, which, he and Harmon have decided, means getting rid of unwanted hooks.
One big win with an altered swing does not mean much, but Mickelson's victory at the Players means something. He's teasing the golf world again. What might he yet accomplish?
Mickelson has had a Hall of Fame career already. But will he be remembered as the golfer who could have and should have won more majors, like Norman? Or will he win as many majors as his talent suggests he can, even in these Woods-dominated days?
Here comes summer. It should be a good one.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
