Can Phil turn three into four?

I CAN recall vividly the first time I realised Phil Mickelson was a little bit special and it was a moment that no one among the large number of spectators who witnessed it will ever forget. At the time, the much-vaunted Mickelson, then a 21-year-old amateur but already a winner on the PGA Tour, was playing a tight singles match against the vastly-experienced Jim Milligan at the 1991 Walker Cup at Portmarnock on the outskirts of Dublin, writes Colin Callander.

It appeared he had handed the initiative to his doughty Scottish opponent when he missed the green to the left on the treacherous par-three 15th. Anyone who has played this marvellous Irish links will know there is no such thing as a straightforward recovery from that particular spot – and the raw Mickelson certainly did not have one.

He arrived at his ball to find he was left with a sharply uphill shot off a tight, downhill links lie to a pin cut barely six feet onto the putting surface. Most mere mortals would have elected to putt, but not Mickelson. Instead, he pulled his lob wedge from his bag and with a full swing lofted his ball high into the air and landed it softly less than three feet from the hole.

It remains one of the finest, most outrageous, shots I have witnessed in all my years of watching golf and it signalled the arrival of a genuine superstar in the making. Subsequently, of course, Mickelson has gone on to win three Majors, not to mention 30 other professional titles around the world.

As we head into the 2008 season, he sits at No 2 on the official world rankings, having won four times last season. It is an impressive record. Except, that is, when compared with his nemesis, Tiger Woods, who during a shorter time span has amassed 13 Major titles and no fewer than 70 other titles – more than double Mickelson’s global tally.

It should be pointed out that Woods plays abroad more often than his compatriot. Mickelson has though recently shown more of a willingness to venture abroad and was rewarded with a win at the HSBC Tournament of Champions in Shanghai towards the back end of 2007.

There will also be those who believe it is intrinsically unfair to compare Mickelson with the phenomenon that is Woods. But I would disagree on the grounds that there is little to separate the two in terms of sheer natural ability. Mickelson has the wherewithal to play all the shots that Woods can play. He might even possess a wider repertoire of shots around the green but there are areas he lags well behind Woods.

Quite simply, each of these relative shortcomings will have to be addressed if he is ever to harbour realistic hopes of overhauling the world No 1. When Mickelson won the second of his Major titles at the 2005 USPGA, his closest challenger Thomas Bjorn stated the American could go on to win 10 Major titles, and in terms of natural ability the Dane was not wrong.

During that week the crowd favourite was at best indifferent from tee to green but was rescued by his stunning array of chips around the green and a red-hot putter. Only when he produced one final, decisive chip from heavy rough by the 18th green did he look like the champion.

He declared afterwards, with more than a hint of romance and sentiment as well as modesty, that it was a fairly straightforward shot given it was one he had struck thousands of times in his backyard as a child. But you need more than raw talent to become a serial Major winner.

Just ask Tom Weiskopf, another American who possessed outrageous natural ability but claimed just one Major title, the 1973 Open at Royal Troon. Mickelson’s former coach, Dick Smith, has an interesting theory on why his charge took so long – bearing in mind I first saw him was in 1991 and it was not until the 2004 Masters he broke his duck – to win his first Major.

It could also explain why he lags so far behind his one-time Ryder Cup partner Woods when it comes to victories.

“Because he (Mickelson) was so gifted and successful he delayed making swing changes he probably should have made when he was young,” suggested Smith. “But no matter how good your hands are, you don’t want to rely on them to square the clubface when it is going at 126 miles an hour under the huge pressure of coming down the back nine of a Major championship.”

Thanks, firstly to Smith, then more crucially to the input of Woods’ former coach, Butch Harmon, Mickelson’s swing now has improved markedly. This was demonstrated by a near-perfect final round of 69 to win last year’s Players Championship – universally regarded as the unofficial fifth Major – at the TPC of Sawgrass.

That day, up against the strongest field of the year, the American left-hander hit 16 greens in regulation, including the first 13 of the day as he cruised to victory.

“It was the best round I have ever seen him play,” confirmed his friend and long-term caddie, Jim ‘Bones’ McKay, afterwards.

“Yes, there have been hundreds of lower scores over the years but, right from the first birdie on the opening hole, this was clinical, controlled, highly educated golf.”

Mickelson has also been working hard on his fitness although he would be the first to admit he still languishes considerably behind Woods in this regard.
“One of the things in the past was that my lower body strength, my leg strength and flexibility, has not been good enough to allow me to make some of the swing changes I wanted to incorporate,” he admitted a couple of years ago.

“But now, thanks to the work I have done with martial arts training and physio ball work, I can swing the club at a faster speed while still maintaining my balance and control. I’m swinging faster but look how I finish and you’ll see I am perfectly balanced.”

The work that Mickelson has done on his technique and his core fitness will undoubtedly continue to pay dividends during the coming season. But if he is to challenge Woods’ overall supremacy he might conclude that, apart from his known weaknesses, he will also have to work on one of his perceived strengths – a slightly suspect putting technique.

This sometimes leads him to decelerate under pressure and has resulted in his putting averages deteriorating slightly from 1.73 in 2001 to 1.75 in 2007.

It might not sound much, but at this level of the game such apparently tiny fractions matter. The left-hander still enjoys periods when he seems to hole everything in sight but he is nowhere near as consistent as Woods. To recap, the world No 1 somewhat improbably did not miss a single putt of four feet or under on the 2006 PGA Tour, a quite astonishing achievement that becomes even more remarkable the more you think about it.

Indeed, he has a strong claim to rival Jack Nicklaus as the finest clutch putter who has ever lived. Woods is similar to the Golden Bear in as much as he seems to have an innate ability to will crucial putts into the hole. It is that colossal strength of mind which sets him apart from Mickelson and the rest of the ever-increasing chasing pack.

It is this aspect, more than any part of Woods’s long game, which makes it extremely unlikely that the left-hander will ever achieve parity with his great rival. All the indications are that Mickelson fans can look forward to a fine 2008 season during which their favourite will win on a regular basis and might even add to his tally of Majors.

But I, for one, will not be betting my mortgage on him ousting Woods as world No 1 either this year or at any time in the future and I can tell you why. When it comes to the crunch what sets Woods apart is his almost superhuman ability to focus 100 per cent on his job wherever and whenever he plays and that is something Mickelson knows full well that he can never match.

“To me, there are so many more things to enjoy in life,” he admitted a few years ago. “I love competitive golf, but I also love spending time with my family and a million other things. When you look at the big picture, golf is a game and it’s fun. But I don’t live for it. It’s not really like it’s a critical element.”

Can you imagine Woods uttering those words? No, of course not, even now that he has a family himself. And the moment he does will be the moment that he decides to retire. For now, though, his challengers know he is the man to catch. It is the man I first saw perform heroics in Ireland 17 years ago who is the most likely to run him close.