Phil Mickelson
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Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970) (nicknamed "Lefty" for having a left-handed swing, despite being right-handed), is an American professional golfer. He is one of the leading players of his generation, having won three major championships and a total of 29 events on the PGA Tour.
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[edit] Scouting Report
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Driving Iron Play Short Game Mental Game Report Card
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[edit] Career summary
Phil Mickelson was born in San Diego, California and raised in Arizona and San Diego. He began playing golf at a very young age and copied his father's right handed swing while standing facing him, thus acquiring a left-handed swing despite being right-handed. He graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1988, then attended Arizona State on a golf scholarship, from which he graduated in 1992. In 1990, he became the first left-hander to win the U.S. Amateur title. By 1991, he had won his first PGA Tour tournament at the Northern Telecom Open as an amateur, becoming the first to do so since Scott Verplank at the 1985 Western Open in Chicago.
Mickelson continued to win many PGA Tour tournaments, winning at the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and the World Series of Golf in 1996, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1998, the Colonial in 2000 and the Greater Hartford Open in 2001 and again in 2002. Mickelson is also one of only 5 golfers (Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Annika Sörenstam) to have ever shot 59 in competition, and is the only left-hander among them; his 59 came at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Golf Course on November 24, 2004. (However, it does not count in some record books because the Grand Slam of Golf does not count as an official event, so there are only 4 golfers to record "official" 59s.) Mickelson was known for his powerful full swing but even more so for his superlative short game, most of all his daring "Phil flop" shot in which a big swing with a high-lofted wedge against a tight lie flies a ball high into the air for a short distance.
[edit] "The best player never to win a Major"
Despite these accomplishments, for many years Mickelson was often described as the "best golfer never to win a major." Mickelson often played well in majors: in the five-year span between 1999 and 2003 he had six second-place or third-place finishes. But victory always eluded him, for reasons that were ascribed to taking too many risky shots, missing too many short putts, or a general lack of what it takes to close out a big tournament. Undaunted, Mickelson continued to refine his game and his course strategy and psychology.
[edit] Redemption at Augusta
Finally, his first major championship win came in the 2004 Masters, where he won with a 20-foot final hole birdie putt, defeating Ernie Els in a thrilling Sunday back-nine duel in which the stars traded birdies and eagles back and forth. In addition to getting the "majors monkey" off his back, this made him only the third golfer with a left-handed swing to win a major, the others being New Zealander Sir Bob Charles who won the British Open in 1963 and Canadian Mike Weir, who won The Masters in 2003. (Like Mickelson, Weir is a right-hander who plays left-handed.)
The following year, in a Monday final round, Mickelson captured his second career major championship with his victory at the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. On the 18th hole, Mickelson hit one of his trademark soft pitches from deep greenside rough to within a foot and a half of the cup, and then made his birdie to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve Elkington and Thomas Björn. Mickelson captured his third major championship the following spring by winning the 2006 Masters. He won his second Green Jacket after shooting a 3 under par final round, winning by 2 strokes over his nearest rival Tim Clark. This win propelled him to 2nd place in the world golf rankings (his career best), behind Tiger Woods and ahead of Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen. Talk of Mickelson's inability to win majors was now replaced by speculation of how many he could win.
[edit] 2006 U.S. Open
- Main article: Ogilvy Wins U.S. Open
Mickelson's mid-career rejuvenation hit a snag at the 2006 U.S. Open, however, when he lost the tournament to Geoff Ogilvy in one of the worst final-hole collapses in Major championship history. Leading by two strokes going into the final hole, all Mickelson needed to win his third straight Major was bogey or better. Inexplicably, though, Mickelson pulled out his driver and made an agressive swing on the hole, spraying the ball off a hospitality tent well to the left of the trees surrounding the fairway. Even at that point, Mickelson could have escaped the Open with a win, had he just punched the ball out into the fairway, hit the green, and putted out... Instead, he tried to hit a high cut shot over the trees in front of him and onto the well-protected green -- but the shot never made it over the impediments, striking a tree branch and ending up just 25 yards closer to the green, with more trees still blocking the way. Mickelson now had no choice but to try the same shot again; this time he made it over the trees, but sailed into the bunker behind the green. From the bunker, the best Mickelson could do was explode the ball in the general direction of the hole, but the ball rolled off the green entirely. When Mickelson failed to hole out his chip shot from the rough (shot number five on the par-4 18th), Ogilvy won the championship. "This one is going to take a little while to get over," Mickelson would say after the debacle.
[edit] Fan appeal
Demonstrating grace after even the toughest defeats, showing appreciation to legions of his fans and always honoring the traditions and history of the game has made Phil one of the most popular players ever to play on the Tour.
