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Phil Mickelson: How to age gracefully

By Bill Felber

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 10: Phil Mickelson of the United States walks from the seventh tee during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links on February 10, 2019 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 10: Phil Mickelson of the United States walks from the seventh tee during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links on February 10, 2019 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /
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Phil Mickelson chips onto the 18th green during the third round of the Safeway Open at the North Course of the Silverado Resort and Spa on October 6, 2018 in Napa, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
Phil Mickelson chips onto the 18th green during the third round of the Safeway Open at the North Course of the Silverado Resort and Spa on October 6, 2018 in Napa, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /

Scrambling

Before he became a dominant putter, Mickelson became a dominant scrambler. This may come as a surprise to those who have thought of Phil as always possessing a dominant short game.  The truth has been more random.

From his arrival in 1993 through 2008, Phil did indeed have periods of brilliance around the greens. In 2000 he saved par or better 65.22 percent of the time, a career best and 1.78 standard deviations ahead of the field. In 2004 he converted 64.67 percent of his save opportunities, 1.84 percent above the tour average.

But he was erratic. Between 1993 and 2009, Phil’s recovery game failed to even reach the tour average for efficiency seven different times, and he never strung together more than three consecutive seasons when he beat the tour average for recovery percentage.

That changed when Phil Mickelson turned 40 in 2010 … almost exactly the same time that his driving dominance began to wane. Four times between 2010 and 2014, he beat the tour recovery average by more than a full standard deviation, topping at 1.38 in 2012, his best showing in seven seasons.

Since 2014 Phil’s dominance from around the green has begun to wane again…although he did peak at 1.80 standard deviations ahead of the field in 2016. Last year, however, he fell back to just a .41 standard deviation edge. By then, fortunately for Phil, he had developed a nuclear putting game to fall back on.

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