GOLF US MASTERS:IN THEORY, your first major title is meant to be the special one. Not in Phil Mickelson's eyes, for the emotional scenes behind the 18th green on Sunday evening – where he embraced his wife, Amy, shortly after rolling in his 272nd shot of the 74th US Masters at Augusta National – vividly endorsed that his third green jacket, and fourth major of his career, was the one that really and truly mattered to him.
This was a real-life feel-good story, and the fact that Mickelson played brilliant and cavalier golf en route to annexing the title was breathtaking for all the right reasons. If, in Saturday’s third round, he had produced spine-tingling drama with his run of eagle-eagle-birdie from the 13th to barge into contention, the defining moment of the left-handed American’s victory march was the audacious approach shot he played off the pine needles through a narrow gap between trees over Rae’s Creek to within seven feet of the flag.
As Billy Foster remarked afterwards, his man Lee Westwood forced to play second-fiddle, he thought he had seen the greatest player – in terms of genius and creativity – when Seve Ballesteros was at his height. Now, he has revised those thoughts: Phil Mickelson, in his view, is The Man! After all the lurid revelations of Tiger Woods’ string of affairs, this in its own way was the perfect riposte.
Mickelson’s wife, Amy, and mother, Mary, have both been battling breast cancer for the past year and this was the first time the golfer’s wife and children had been present at a tournament since The Players last May. On Saturday evening, Mickelson helped his 10-year-old daughter get an X-ray and splint after she suffered a hairline fracture in her wrist while roller-skating.
Butch Harmon, his coach, believed that the family’s presence had helped Mickelson.
“His demeanour was completely different. He was more relaxed. It was the first time in a long time he was able to go home to his family (when on tour). To have the family out was the icing on the cake. Not only is Amy his wife, she’s his confidante. They are the two closest married people I’ve ever seen.” Of his wife’s illness and treatment, Mickelson said: “It’s been tough . . . we are fortunate long term, but the meds she’s been taking has been very difficult and she doesn’t have the energy.
“To have her here and share the moment and share the joy of winning on 18 and to share this with my kids is something we’ll look back on the rest of our lives.”
So, it was fitting that the close-knit family unit got to celebrate as a family. And it was certainly fitting that Mickelson’s golf – be it the wizardry he displayed around the greens with his short game, his remarkable capacity to escape trouble through trees and what not after wayward drives and, most especially, his brilliance in getting the job done down the stretch – brought him a fourth major and first since he claimed the Masters in 2006.
One shot, more than any other, will be recounted as the defining one of this Masters. On the 13th hole of his final round, Mickelson pulled his drive into the right hand trees. When he reached his ball, he saw it had found a decent lie on the pine straws but that two trees blocked his way to the green.
“I was going to have to go through the gap if I laid up or went for the green. The gap wasn’t huge, but it was big enough for a ball to fit through. I just felt I needed to trust my swing and hit a shot, and it came off perfect,” he later recounted.
Westwood probably knew then that the moment had slipped him by. “I think most people would have chipped that one out (to the fairway) . . . it’s one of the few shots, really, that only Phil could pull off. But that’s what great players do, pull off great shots at the right time.”
Mickelson’s fourth major win has enabled him to move clear of a group of his contemporaries, among them Pádraig Harrington, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh who each have three career majors.
In contrast to previous seasons where Mickelson has won early on in the year, this constituted his first win of 2010.
“I felt I was playing well starting the year, I just haven’t had the results, whatever it was. Maybe I didn’t putt well. Maybe I made some mistakes and couldn’t recover, hitting (balls) in the water and whatnot. I wasn’t discouraged, I actually felt very confident heading in . . . I’m in love with this place and it brings out the best in me,” said Mickelson, who has returned to number two in the latest world rankings.
Mickelson’s fate – including getting a helpful bounce off a spectator on the 11th when his tee shot into the trees bounced back to the first cut of rough – was in contrast to that of Tiger Woods, who finished tied-fourth. “I didn’t hit the ball good enough . . . I didn’t have it, that was pretty evident.”
But if the pre-Masters talk had been about one man and his family, the post-Masters talk was of another man and his family. The win by Mickelson – and its execution in a Masters that had the roars reverberating around Augusta National – could well be his most cherished of all.
