The 19^th Hole

February 19, 2007

Should I Even Be Mad?

Phil blew it.  He blew it again.  This time, he managed to ruin a share of the lead that he held for the past three days at Riviera in the Nissan Open.  Charles Howell III was the lucky one to catch Phil this time.  CH3 shot 65 to post -16 and gave Lefty a number to come back down to instead of a score to surge well past as he should have.  Mickelson slid into the playoff and made a few pars before he could no longer stand it and decided to bogey the third playoff hole and give Howell III his second career Tour victory.

As a Mickelson fan, should I even be upset or surprised that this happened?  Well, in hopes of assuaging other Mickelson fans out there, the answer is that you should not be upset OR surprised.  This thing was destined to happen all week long.

Actually, it was destined to happen even before this week.  Phil Mickelson has a terrible career record at Riviera and the Nissan Open.  Mickelson had not even played the event since 2001 when he was cut after shooting +5 for two rounds.  In his career, Mickelson has played at the Nissan on eight different occasions.  He has been cut half of the time.  His best finish was a tie for fifteenth in 1999.

When Mickelson managed to fire 66-65 to take a share of the lead with Paddy Harrington after two rounds, the media began to show the above stats and wonder if Mickelson had turned over a new leaf at Riviera.  The smarter Mickelson fan would have seen this as an opportunity to realize that this kind of solid play just could not stand to last.  There was just no way that a man with as poor of a history at Riviera as Mickelson would win at this golf course – much less make it his second consecutive win.

Even if the discouraging past history at Riviera was not enough to get the Lefty fan to be ready for a meltdown, the third round on Saturday could have foretold the disappointment to come.  Sure, Mickelson started out well on Saturday.  He was four under par through eleven holes.  He was in control at -15.  At the time, he was hovering between three and four clear of the field. 

Then Mickelson decided to bogey the twelfth (a hole he made par on in each of the other three rounds) and that was the beginning of the end.  It may not have seemed like it at the time, but that was the end of the tournament for Mickelson.  He went on to make two other bogies on that back side and come home in even par 36.  Lefty shot 69 on Saturday and instead of leading the tournament by four or five shots, the lead was down to one over Harrington and three over Howell III.

On Sunday, no one on the course expected CH3 to be the foil for Mickelson.  But, I’m willing to wager that for as happy as the media sounded to crown Mickelson a back-to-back winner for the third time in his career, they were fully expecting a collapse.  And they got it.  It didn’t happen right away, though.  Mickelson again opened very strongly on Sunday with three birdies in his first five holes.  It was as though everything was fine and that the home half on Saturday was just dirt on the shoulder.  Then the ninth hole bogey set Mickelson back a stroke, but again, 10-11 proved to be great pick ups for Lefty.  A birdie with a utility club on 10 and a nice birdie on the par 5 set Mickelson up to win.  Pars inward for Mickelson would mean a victory.

The pars inward part was a lot harder than it appeared, apparently.  Mickelson played +1 coming home in the final seven holes.  While that was an improvement over the +2 during the same stretch on Saturday, Lefty was not contending with a surging CH3 in round three.  On Sunday, in that same seven hole stretch, Howell III was -3.  He picked up four strokes on Mickelson to get into a playoff.

If you are a Mickelson fan, you know the rest of the story.  Mickelson puts up a fight, but eventually makes a mistake and loses the golf tournament.  He did just that on the par 3 14^th – the third playoff hole.  Lefty posted a bogey compared to Howell III’s par and the Nissan Open had slipped by Mickelson.

So now what if you root for Lefty?  You shrug it off and say, “That’s our Mickelson!”  At some point, you had to expect shades of old Phil to come out at Riviera.  In order to condition himself for the majors, Mickelson has to get out all of the bad thought processes that normally haunt him.  He managed to pull this stunt two months in advance of the Masters.  Maybe Phil will be mentally ready for Augusta National just in time.  It may as well have happened at Riviera – where Mickelson has a terrible record – as opposed to a track like Augusta that means so much to him.

Mickelson fans should project this as a positive.  Chrysler projected the firing of thousands of employees as a long-term positive for the company.  Wall Street bought it and increased the stock’s value by 5% on the day of terribly disappointing revenue figures.  Mickelson announced on Sunday that he was letting go of his 31^st PGA Tour victory – for now, at least.  With how well he played, in spite of the mental errors, this could actually be a long-term lesson for Mickelson that leads him back on track to achieve his major goals in the future.  At least, that is what I keep telling myself.

Ryan Ballengee is host of The 19th Hole Golf Show, found at The Golf Newsnet.com.  Having graduated from the University of Maryland in 2004 and 2006, Ballengee brings the perspective of the younger golf fan to the microphone and his columns.  Over the nearly five years he has been broadcasting and writing, Ballengee has developed a reputation for a unique interviewing style that asks both the difficult and fun questions. You can also get The 19th Hole on the go through podcasting by clicking here The Golf Newsnet Contact Ryan via e-mail at the19thholeshow@hotmail.com.