Phil’s pretty much uneventful first round during this year’s British Open at St. Andrews left him at +1 after an unfortunate double bogey at 13.  The second round was his usual roller-coaster ride of up and downs (birdie-eagle-bogey-birdie) on the front nine with the nearly the same stats on the back (bogey-bogey-bogey-birdie) which left Phil barely missing the cut. Round 3 started out with a postive note on the front 9 but ended up with a +5 on back nine and didn’t seem to be the “turn-round” round that Phil had hoped for.
The fourth round front nine could have been promising but the back nine took out all the air in the hope of a claret jug.

If you ask me it was just a disconnected line to the top, maybe just a lack of attention devoted to it but it’s not like this is the last round of life, really Phil will go on! And may I say how long before we go to Wisconsin?  See you at the PGA!

Oh wait, I’m not talking about Forbes – I’m just talking about Phil.  Who needs a magazine to tell us what we already know about the man who we admire?  Especially when they still continue to support others on their list – shall we say spots #5 (Tiger Woods), #14 (Kobe Bryant), #20 (Michael Jordan) and #26 (Jennifer Aniston) – whom are either liars and cheaters or just insignificant “actors” (and I use that term loosely when referring to #26).

I don’t have to have a magazine to tell me how special Phil is or how his positive influence has affected so many charities and people around the world. I say we start our own list – the Phil Top 1 –guess who is #1 then?!

On the last day, the anticipation is killing you and you can’t wait to run and get back on the ride for the last time of the weekend.  Your heart is pumping and the first sweet dip is done (Round 4 birdie on the first), then suddenly the ride is just mellowing out, and you have some twists and turns (wayward shots, bunkers and even a backwards club hit) until you feel that the ride today is not going to turn out the way you expected.  But you stay true to it, because you know that soon that day will come again when the ride makes your heart pump and the adrenaline flow, it could again be that Magical Sunday we,  his fans, continue to hope he achieves!

We’ll see you again soon, Phil, at St. Andrews – we’ll have our "E" tickets ready!

Woods has been sitting atop the world rankings for 258 consecutive weeks, but will be relegated into second place if Lefty wins this week and Tiger does not finish better than fifth. Phil would be the 14th player since the inception of the official world golf ranking in 1986 to occupy the number one spot. With four majors under his belt Mickelson has surpassed the other great players of his generation (Els, Goosen, Singh, Harrington) but has yet to be recognized as the No. 1 player in the world relative to the rankings.

“It would mean a lot to me”, Mickelson said. He added: “"But for me to accomplish that, I can’t focus on that. I’ve got to go out and get ready to play this golf course because it’s not an easy challenge, and for me to have a chance to achieve No. 1, I’ve got to win. So I’ve got a lot of work ahead."

With the world of golf turning most of its attention at the race for the number one spot between Tiger and Lefty, the starting position for the two stars cannot be more different: While Mickelson has finished 1st and 2nd in his last two starts on the PGA Tour, Woods struggled to a fourth place in his return to competitive golf at the US Masters (his first tournament after his infamous sex scandal) and missed the cut last week for only the sixth time in his career as a professional golfer.

Despite his poor showing at Charlotte and putting several balls into the water during today’s practice round at TPC Sawgrass, no one expects Tiger to surrender his spot without putting up a fight: "I have seen him hit shots that I don’t know if anybody else in the world could ever possibly hit," Mickelson said. "He is an incredible player and talent, and he has one of the most impressive records, if not the most impressive record, in the history of the game. I won’t ever underestimate him.

Tiger Woods has been atop the world ranking for a total of more than 10 years but has already been passed by David Duval (for 15 weeks in 1999) and Vijay Singh (for 32 weeks in 2004): "I’ve had it happen before, Double D and Vijay," Woods said. "I’ve had it happen before, and the whole idea to be No. 1 and to continue being No. 1, you have to win golf tournaments. And I haven’t done that in a while. I haven’t played in a while."

Both players are past champions at The Players Championship with Woods winning in 2001 and Mickelson in 2007 but haven’t had too many Top-10 finishes in the other years. Lefty definitively has momentum coming into the unofficial fifth major of the season and I am certain he will do better than Tiger this year. However, expecting him to win again would be too much ask, so we’ll have to wait at least until the HP Byron Nelson Championship in two weeks for a world number one Phil Mickelson.

In the most emotional moment of a tournament marked by Tiger Woods’ return to professional golf and an extraordinary display of golf by the world’s top players, Phil was congratulated by his wife Amy behind the 18th green. It was Amy’s first visit to a golf tournament since the Players Championship last May.

A more detailed story on the Masters tournament will follow as soon as possible. Please feel free to use the comment function to congratulate Phil on this fantastic victory!

In Friday’s edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, McCarron made the remark with respect to Mickelson’s use of the Ping Eye 2 wedge. The club features squared grooves - exactly the kind of club banned all around the world as of January 1. Mickelson is only one of several players who are using the club at this week’s tournament. This is technically legal because of a loophole in the new equipment rules arising from a lawsuit in the 1980s.
All major professional golf organizations have banned the use of squared grooves in order to make it more difficult for players to spin the ball out of the rough and thereby make it more important to hit the fairway of the tee.

However, McCarron stated that using the club was “against the spirit of the game” and that the rule should be changed immediately. Several TV commentators reacted by pointing out that McCarron himself might be acting against the spirit of the game by using a belly putter.

When asked about McCarron’s statement Mickelson agreed that the “rule is ridiculous and that it should be changed”. But he insisted that using the pre-1990 club isn’t cheating and that “it isn’t my job [...] to interpret the intent of the rule”.

How do you feel about the new groove rule and Scott McCarron’s statement? Do you think that Phil should stop using a club he had in his bag for over a decade? Do you feel that the USGA and/or the PGA Tour need to make further changes to their rules? Please use the comment function to share your thoughts.

After a lengthy break (Mickelson’s last tournament was his thrilling victory in the WGC - HSBC Champions in early November 2009), we expect Phil to play in five consecutive events until the Phoenix Open in late February. He will play in 22 events, four of those on foreign soil.

Here are my favorite Phil Mickelson moments of 2009:

1) Wife Amy and Mother Mary diagnosed with breast cancer

Now please don’t get me wrong here: What I like about this is obviously not the fact that two members of the Mickelson family were diagnosed with that tragic disease within a few weeks of each other but rather the way how Phil and his family handled the situation. To immediately suspend his PGA Tour season was bad news for golf fans all over the world but definitely the right thing to do. To me it showed (once again) that Phil Mickelson might be a multi-millionaire but that nothing is more important to him than his family.
Even though Tiger Woods has reacted in the same way (in announcing an indefinite absence from professional golf) when news about his turbulent marital life broke he would’ve been well advised to set his priorities accordingly a long time ago.
The condolence within the golf community (and far beyond) was overwhelming: Within hours after we posted the news about Amy’s diagnosis on the website, hundreds of fans from all over the world had left a message sending their prayers and wishes to Amy and Phil.

2) Phil’s emotional return to the PGA Tour at the US Open

Even though Phil already returned to the Tour at the St. Jude Classic, the pictures that will stay in my mind (forever) are the ones from the US Open at Bethpage Black. Playing in only his second tournament after going public with the news about Amy’s diagnosis, Mickelson delivered a heroic fight in front of his die-hard New York fans to finish in a tie for second behind surprise winner Lucas Glover.

3) Five wins in a season!

Due to the events in his personal life, Phil played in only 18 events on the PGA Tour (plus the Barclays Singapore Open on the Asian Tour).
Among others he did not tee it up at the 2009 British Open in July to be with his wife Amy and mother Mary. He missed only two cuts at the FBR Open (his first tournament of the season) and the Shell Houston Open prior to the Masters. In the remaining 16 events, Mickelson finished inside the Top-10 an impressive seven times and earned more than $6.5 Mio. in prize money (incl. $1.2 Mio. for his victory in the WGC – HSBC Champions which is not an official PGA Tour event).

While everybody will understand that consistency couldn’t be asked of Phil Mickelson in 2009, I consider it to be one of his best seasons ever. It sure was exciting: Whenever he set foot on a golf course you couldn’t be sure if he would miss the cut or win the tournament.
With all the frenzy surrounding his personal life during the past months, we all tend to forget what an exceptional season Phil had on the golf course:
It started with a successful title defence at the Northern Trust Open in February. His next victory came at the CA Championship at Doral where Phil successfully overcame a virus disease, heat exhaustion and dehydration to win the first World Golf Championship title of his career and move back to the number two spot in the official world golf rankings.
After what can only be described as a roller-coaster season, Phil ended his 2009 campaign in style with victories at the The Tour Championship and the WGC - HSBC Champions in China.

While we are all wondering what the golf world will look like without Tiger next season I send my best wishes to Phil Mickelson, his family and all the readers of phil-fanatics.com. Happy New Year and see you all in 2010!

Trailing Els by one Mickelson hit his tee shot at the drivable Par-4 16th to the left of the green and was left with a tricky approach to a pin that was placed only a few feet behind a bunker.
He set-up for his famous flop and made a beautiful swing into a full finish…it took me a fraction of a second but I had to realize that he had gone right underneath the ball and had only moved it a few inches. He then punched his third shot onto the green’s collar but with Ernie Els one shot ahead and in the middle of the fairway after his tee shot on the 72nd hole, it didn’t look as if a happy ending was likely to happen for Lefty.

Els - who was playing two groups ahead of Mickelson - was at -10 for the day and seemed to be in perfect control of his game. But obviously there was too much pressure for the South African:
Looking for his first victory since the 2008 Honda Classic he made a complete mess of his second shot into the Par-5 and hit the fairway metal into the water hazard at least 20 yards short of the green. Only seconds later Mickelson pumped his fist after rolling in the long and breaking par putt on 16. He then hit his tee shot on the Par-3 17th to eight feet and made the birdie putt.

After Els missed a lenghty par attempt on the hole ahead it was clear that par would be enough for Mickelson to win his third World Golf Championship title.
However, despite taking three wood off the tee it would turn out to be a nervous final hole for Phil: He pushed his tee shot to the left into very thick rough and missed the short grass again with his lay-up. With water surrounding the 18th green on three sides a desaster was possible but Mickelson safely pitched on and two-putted for a one-stroke victory.

Ernie Els had to settle for a fourth round of 63 (the third course record of the day together with Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Daisuke Maruyama of Japan) and second place.

Tiger Woods was never a factor in today’s final round as he missed several short putts and was four over par after seven holes. He managed to gather himself and collected five birdies over the next eight holes but his last hole was symptomatic for Tiger’s play: After missing the fairway with the driver he was forced to lay-up on the reachable Par-5. He then ran his ball through the green and into the water for a closing bogey. Tiger finished with a found of 72 (Even) and in a tie for sixth with Germany’s Martin Kaymer.

Mickelson now heads into a long winter’s break. Today was his final round of the year, and he now takes three months off before starting his 2010 season at Torrey Pines in late January.

Phil Mickelson had 16 birdies and only two bogeys during the first three rounds of the tournament and leads world number one Tiger Woods by two strokes going into tomorrow’s final round. The two men will play in the last group together with fellow American Nick Watney who is alongside Woods at 12 under par.

The HSBC Champions is the season’s third event of the World Golf Championship (WGC) series and is played at Sheshan Golf Club, a Par-72 layout (7,199 yds.) just outside of Shanghai. The winner will receive a prize money of appr. $ 1.2 Mio.