By Jim O'Shea
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| (Hunter Martin/Getty Images) |
For the second consecutive week on the
PGA Tour, a player that either missed the cut or didn’t finish in the top 50 in
the previous tournament won the next tournament. One week ago, it was Tiger
Woods that amazed at the Farmers Insurance Open after missing the cut the
previous week in Abu Dhabi. This week Phil Mickelson came out of nowhere to lap
the field at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
How can Phil, of all players, come out
of nowhere?
Well, when you start 2013 by finishing
T37 and T51 in your first two tournaments, nobody expects much of you in your
next tournament. Especially when you shoot no rounds in the 60s in your
previous tournament, which is what Phil did at the Farmers Insurance Open. Phil
almost continued the trend of no rounds in the 60s at the Phoenix Open, but
this time he almost shot a round in the 50s instead of the 70s. Phil came out
firing from the beginning, birdieing his first four holes in the first round.
He closed out his front nine by birdieing the last three to shoot a 29.
On the back nine, it was more of the
same for Lefty. He birdied four of the first seven holes on his back nine. He
was sitting at eleven-under going into #17. Since TPC Scottsdale is a par-71,
all Phil needed to shoot a 59 was one birdie and one par to finish his round.
On #17, which was really #8 because Phil started on #10, Phil left his birdie
putt inches short as he had to settle for a par. So, to shoot a 59 Lefty had to
use some of his magic to birdie the par 4 ninth. He hit the green in regulation
that set up a birdie putt for 59. The 20-footer hit the right edge of the cup,
rolled around the cup, and never dropped to the bottom. He had to settle, if
that even makes sense, with a first-round 60.
Going into Friday, Phil had a pretty
comfortable four-shot lead. He followed up his stellar first round with another
stellar second round. He had another chance at history going into #18. If he
parred #18, he would set the 36-hole record for a PGA Tournament. He hit his
drive on #18 into the left-hand hazard, leaving him with a desperate shot at
par. His approach ended short of the green, so he had a tough chip at the
record. He chipped to seven feet from the hole and possibly let his frustration
get to him as he missed the bogey putt. He still shot a second-round 65,
leaving him at 17-under through two rounds.
Phil again had a four-shot lead, but
now there were only two rounds remaining. He let the field stay in the
tournament as he only birdied three of the first fourteen holes. But, holes
15-18 were much different. He birdied 15 coming into the stadium-atmosphere
par-3 sixteenth. The sixteenth has stands around the entire hole, creating an
atmosphere that is nowhere else on tour. Phil stepped right up and hit the shot
of the tournament as he knocked a 9-iron to a foot from the hole. If Phil
wasn’t already the fan favorite, which he was, he was surely it now. He tapped
in for birdie, then birdied 17 and 18 to finish with four straight birdies to
shoot a seven-under 64. Along with the birdies came a growing lead that widened
to six shots after the round.
Six strokes ahead of the field for Phil
is game over, right? Someone forgot to tell Brandt Snedeker that because he
came out to win on Sunday. Brandt played in the final group with Phil, but
never seemed fazed by the four-time major champion. Both parred the first, but
Phil gave a stroke back as he bogeyed the second. Brandt built on that as he
birdied the third. After three holes, Phil’s lead had dwindled to four strokes.
Phil didn’t worry as he birdied the fourth to gain a stroke on the field. The
sixth through the ninth was when Brandt began to make his move. He birdied
three of those four holes as he inched to within three shots of Phil. Again,
Phil wasn’t worried as he birdied the thirteenth to regain a four-shot lead.
When both Phil and Brandt birdied the fifteenth, it was all but over. Lefty
parred the sixteenth, birdied the seventeenth, and tapped in for par at the
eighteenth to claim the Waste Management Phoenix Open for the third time in his
career. This was also Phil’s 41st victory on the PGA Tour, which is
ninth all-time.
Two weeks. Two comebacks. Not during
the tournament, but from the last week’s performance. Phil Mickelson, Arizona
native and Arizona State graduate, fed off the crowd’s energy to dominate the
Phoenix Open, winning by four strokes and finishing at 28-under.
