There’s chokin’, and then there’s Phil
Last week, it was Ben Roethlisberger. This week, I can’t seem to
figure out what Phil Mickelson was thinking as he stood on the tee
of the final hole of the U.S. Open with a one-shot lead.
A par on the final hole at Winged Foot would have given him his
third major win in a row. A bogey gets him into a playoff.
There’s chokin’, and then there’s Phil
Last week, it was Ben Roethlisberger. This week, I can’t seem to figure out what Phil Mickelson was thinking as he stood on the tee of the final hole of the U.S. Open with a one-shot lead.
A par on the final hole at Winged Foot would have given him his third major win in a row. A bogey gets him into a playoff.
Instead, the PGA Tour’s leading money winner and No. 2 ranked player in the world takes a double bogey six to finish second.
This is a guy that has probably had three double bogeys in the last year.
I’ve seen some pretty good chokes over the years on the Tour. This one definitely ranks in the top five.
What was he thinking?
Ben Hogan once said that the tee shot sets up every hole, emphasizing the importance of hitting the fairway.
Here is a guy that only hit two fairways all day. And as he walks to the 72nd hole, needing a par, he pulls out the toughest club in the bag to drill down the middle: the driver.
Phil, why not hit a 3-wood or a 1-iron and ice the tournament? These guys can all bust a 1-iron 270 yards so it’s not like a long iron wouldn’t have given him enough distance. Two-hundred-seventy yards down the middle is a lot better than 310 in the thick stuff – just ask Hogan. I’m sure you’ll concur.
What makes this even harder to believe is that it was a seasoned veteran that did it. You could see a no-name guy like Kenneth Ferrie, who was playing in his first U.S. Open, do something like this, or even the head case Colin Montgomerie – not a guy that has already won twice this season and is in the hunt every week.
After winning the previous two Majors people thought that this rookie move was not possible for the game’s 36-year-old statesman.
Several years back, yeah, but not now.
Early on in his career Mickelson was often compared to Arnold Palmer for his aggressive style of play and desire to fire at every flag and go for the unthinkable, one-in-a-million shot.
It’s about time those comparisons come back.
Tiger Woods plays the game like and has the mindset of Jack Nicklaus. Phil plays like Arnie, always charging and never backing off. Sometimes that style of play works other times it comes back to haunt him. This is the kind of thing that could turn a guy to Jim Beam and Pepto Bismol.
Phil’s Palmeresque style of play may win him a slew of regular Tour events, but it’s not going to grab a U.S. Open. That brash style of play doesn’t bode well in U.S. Open conditions.
If Phil doesn’t start thinking more like Woods and Nicklaus he may end his great career without ever winning one.
Nicklaus and Woods would have never shot themselves in the foot. Just this week, ESPN Analyst and two-time U.S. Open winner Andy North pointed out that Nicklaus was the greatest par maker of all time and understood the value of par in a U.S. Open better than anyone else.
Mickelson plays every week like he’s competing in the Bob Hope – a tournament where you’ll get lapped by the field if you only make par.
Palmer lost as many as he won by brazen play. And evidently Mickelson is on his way to doing the same thing.
Sure the crowd loves that style of play. Arnie had his “Army” and clearly Phil is equally loved by the galleries. But the Open is about course management and patience. Had a level-headed par-making machine like Woods or Nicklaus (in his prime) been in the lead in that same situation, it would have been a done deal.
In the Open, par is king and Phil needs to understand that, or at least remember that when the tournament is on the line.
Even after he duck-hooked his drive off the tee, he still could have blasted a shot sideways out of the rough and up the fairway, which would have left him a short iron for a third shot that he could have gotten up and down for par.
And even if he couldn’t, hitting the green and two-putting would have still gotten him into a Monday playoff against Ogilvy, who probably would have folded under the head-to-head pressure.
Had Phil won he would have been going for the third leg of the Grand Slam next month at the British Open. Instead, he’s probably about ready to see a shrink or wanting to slam a few drinks.
