Mickelson serves notice at Players Championship
IN: News | US PGA | The Players Championship (2007) | Wrap | by Bruce Young | 14 May 2007
Phil Mickelson today served notice to the golfing world that he is well and truly back. Not that he had necessarily gone anywhere but after his 72nd hole demise at the US Open nearly twelve months ago there were many quite happy to dig the knife in further to a man who tends to polarise the golfing community.
Mickelson’s two shot win at the Players Championship over Sergio Garcia came after his closest pursuer, Sean O’Hair, had self destructed at the par three 17th following a shot that appeared to be right on line but flew into the water beyond.
Mickelson was gracious in his praise for O’Hair in the prizegiving ceremony. “Sean played well enough to win the tournament today and I am full of admiration for the shot he hit on the 17th,” said the winner. “It was right on the pin but the breeze, which had been in our face on the tee, actually turned downwind. He was prepared to go for it and (despite it going in the water) it was a great shot under the circumstances.”
Mickelson had started the last day one behind O’Hair but his birdies at the first and second holes had the pair tied in the lead at 10 under. Mickelson move ahead with a birdie at the 7th but O’Hair drew level again when he birdied the 9th after a pitch to nine feet was converted and the pair turned for home at 11 under and four ahead.
Mickelson took the lead at the 10th courtesy of a bogey by O’Hair after the 24 year old had found the fairway bunker and had been long with his second. Mickelson then birdied the 11th after a fine pitch from the left half of the fairway at the par five and O’Hair was unable to get up and down from the front bunker. The difference was two.
The pair traded blows until the 16th where O’Hair had a great chance to draw within one but missed a five foot putt which he completely misread. “I hit a good putt there but it did not turn,” he said later.
The 17th and 18th holes, which must rate as the most nightmarish finishing holes in the game, were always likely to settle the outcome of the event and once again the 17th was about to do just that. Courtesy of his birdie at the 11th Mickelson, with a two shot lead, still had the honour and found the green, albeit 45 feet from the hole. Sensing an opportunity he had to take, O’Hair took dead aim at the back right flag and in the air it looked to be right on line.
“I wasn’t playing for second,” O’Hair said later. “I hit a shot that I was pleased with and executed the way I wanted to but whether it was adrenaline of whatever it flew the green and then with the shot from the drop area I again hit the shot as I wanted but it took a big leap forward. I figured (after the tee shot) if I could make bogey then I could perhaps still do something special up the last but it wasn’t to be.” After the two balls in the water, O’Hair took quadruple bogey and fell back to a share of 6th with one hole to play. He would bogey the last costing himself.
Mickelson duly two putted and headed to the last with a three shot lead over Garcia who had finished an hour or so earlier with a final round of 66. He found the fairway from the tee and with no reason to go at the flag, somehow, nearly managed to find the water with his second. He finished just a yard from the water and pitched to 12 feet. His par saving putt missed but by then it was of little consequence. He was the Players Champion for the first time and had won his 31st PGA Tour title and perhaps one of his most treasured.
At a time when the new relationship between he and coach Butch Harmon is so much the focus of media attention, Mickelson was quick to point out when asked that his success as a player before and now is due to the three people he thanked starting with his friend and ex coach, Rick Smith, Butch Harmon who has officially only recently taken over and Dave Pelz who puts the finishing touches on Mickelson’s brilliant short game. “Golf is an individual sport he said but there is a great support network involved.”
Garcia’s runner up finish came at the end of a great late rush where he birdied four of the last five holes. The double bogey he made the 54th hole on Saturday afternoon on reflection proved costly but there were many others who could look back on one or two holes that cost them dearly in this event.
There were several brilliant comebacks by those who filled the minor placings with Jose Maria Olazabal, Stewart Cink, Robert Karlssson and Adam Scott all recovering from slow first rounds to record impressive finishes. On Thursday afternoon Olazabal was looking a double bogey in the face at the 18th and a possible first round of 80 but he holed a pitch from off the green for par and played the next 54 holes in 14 under par.
Of the Australians many were in contention but in the end it would be Adam Scott and Peter Lonard who would head their assault. Scott played yet another good Players Championship picking up six birdies in his last eleven holes to record a final round of 67 and he shared 6th place.
Lonard went into the final day just two shots out of the lead but four bogeys in his front nine had him at just four under at the turn. Birdies at the 13th and 16th saw him recover to finish in that share of 6th and a cheque for US$281,000 is his reward.
Steve Elkington and Mathew Goggin were 12th, Nathan Green and Stuart Appleby 16th, Geoff Ogilvy and Aaron Baddeley 37th, Rod Pampling 44th and John Senden 52nd.
The PGA Tour now heads to Duluth in Georgia for the AT&T Championship, the event previously known as the Bell South.
Photo – Anthony Powter
