Phil Mickelson Needs A Big Year
As we are a week away from the return of the most talked about “back” in golf, his biggest rival makes his 2015 debut this weekend. Phil Mickelson will play his first professional tournament of the year at The Humana Challenge. At forty-four the critics surrounding Phil may be louder than ever. That’s because coming off a lost 2014 campaign Phil has to have a big year. If he doesn’t with all the young fresh face firepower in the golf world, Lefty could be left in the dust.
With at least one win each year since 2003, Mickelson has been the model of consistency on the PGA Tour. That streak came to a screeching halt last year. Not only did Lefty not pick up a win, he was barely even a factor. He posted just one top five finish and didn’t even qualify for the Tour Championship. Yes his one solid tournament was a runner-up at the PGA, but going into that week his position on the Ryder Cup wasn’t even a guarantee. This is Phil Mickelson we’re talking about. His forty-two career wins are good enough for ninth all-time on tour and second most among active players.
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As he starts 2015, his prime years are closer to the end than the beginning. Phil has pulled out all the stops to make last year’s mess become a distant memory. In a recent interview on his website he talked about how much of a struggle 2014 was.
"He said: “It was a bad year statistically in all areas, I didn’t drive the ball as well I can or expected to. My short irons were worse than they’ve been in my entire career. My short game wasn’t really sharp. My putting was not at the level I expect. But, it’s also motivated me to make next year special.”"
Phil’s evaluation of his game was spot on, nothing worked. He has a chance to win any tournament that he enters, just last year didn’t look like it. Then there was his performance at the PGA where he came out of no where to almost steal the Wanamaker Trophy from Rory McIlroy. If Phil would have won at Valhalla, maybe the mood surrounding him would sound a little different, and he understands that.
"He said: “The PGA was the highlight and could have really turned the year around if I could have held on to win. Instead it was just a close call. Not winning made it the worst year of my career.”"
To help get rid of the sour taste in his mouth, Phil went to work in making sure his forty-four year old body was ready to come back with vengeance. He got started on a rigorous off-season training program with trainer Sean Cochran. The five time major winner is feeling better than ever saying, “In the first five or six weeks I’ve had some immediate results. I’m getting lighter, developing more core strength and increasing my ball speed. It’s been a while since I felt so at ease.” It’s also been a while since his name ended a tournament on top of a leaderborad.
Now it’s easy to talk the talk, and this week at the Humana it’s time for Mickelson to walk the walk. The days of him being the lovable runner up to Tiger Woods are over. Part of the reason why is because it’s tough to be a runner-up to guy who doesn’t play and also because this isn’t ten years ago. In golf the youth are starting to dominate, and for guys like Mickelson their time in the sun is dwindling. He will always be a top draw at any tournament he enters, but if Lefty is going to get back to an elite level he better do it soon, because the game won’t wait for him.