Mickelson the magician pulls a rabbit out of the hat

By Neville Idour

If he was an on-stage entertainer I feel Phil Mickelson would have been a magician or illusionist or something of that ilk.

After all hasn’t he been all of that, entertaining millions of golf fans around the globe for 30 plus years?

At any given time, even during a single round, Mickelson can thrill or excite, or when he is not on song, he can frustrate and disappoint.

In achieving the seemingly impossible with his groundbreaking triumph at the PGA Championship in the United States last month, he almost completely eliminated the last two emotions and left viewers in awe of his unwavering concentration.

In his own words he said it all.

“I believed it was possible, but everything was saying it wasn’t.”

And that was the case. Why?

Well, his statistics this season tell the tale. His average scoring was 71.854, which was 169th on the PGA Tour.

An idea of how far off the pace that was is that Viktor Hovland was averaging 69.783 and our own Tim Wilkinson was 12 places higher with 71.706.

In 15 events this season he had made the cut nine times. In the first eight events his best finish was tied for 44th and missed four cuts. In the last six events, prior to the PGA Championship, there were glimmers of hope with three top 25s

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However, the two events before the PGA Championship he missed the cut and finished 69th.

On the surface, not a promising lead up to the PGA. The glimmers of hope were his tie for 21st at the Masters where his final three rounds were consistent and his 64 in the first round of the Wells Fargo where he finished 69th.

So how did Mickelson achieve what no other player has? There are obviously many strings to this wonderful bow he put together.

Firstly, as he made clear at his press conference, he had been working much harder on improving his physical fitness and his mental approach.

I certainly cannot remember seeing him concentrate so single-mindedly on every shot – breathing deeply to release any tension and taking a little extra time in his approach to the shot. It paid off.

He also gave much credit to his work with his coach, Australian Andrew Getson.

Getson is a former Australasian and Asian tour player who has worked with Mickelson since 2014.

Mickelson said: “his guidance has been invaluable to get me back to playing at the highest level. I was striking it very poorly when we started working together but I had a great performance after that finishing runner-up to Henrik Stenson in the 2016 Open Championship. I am starting to focus better, he is a tremendous instructor because of his ability to simplify things.”

The other person Mickelson heaped great praise on wass his brother and caddie, Tim Mickelson.

Early in the final round Tim Mickelson told him that he would have to fully commit to every shot if he wanted to win. This was a key moment. It was not just the brother relationship, it was also the fact that Tim is immensely experienced as both a player and a coach.

He dabbled in professional golf, playing in the 1999 Buick International and played in one Korn Ferry tour event in 2001. Tim coached at the University of San Diego for eight years and was then coach at Arizona State University from 2011 to 2016 where Jon Rahm was in the team. Not a bad curriculum vitae.

So clearly the Mickelson team was nicely in place. All that was required was for Mickelson to produce the goods. As the stats reveal he certainly did that.

On a long course that did not seem to be one to suit him, he proved equal to the challenge by saving more shots than anyone else in the field. He scored consistently each round to accumulate 22 birdies whereas second placed Koepka gained 20 shots and Oosthuizen just 16.

Highlighting the challenge the course presented is the fact that both Justin Rose and Matthew Fitzpatrick both gained 19 shots but finished well adrift of Mickelson.

Beginning the final round most pundits had their money on Koepka and Oosthuizen and when listening to their press conference interviews one got the impression they thought similarly.

Both seemed bemused that Mickelson didn’t open the gate for them. In fact it was the opposite. When the pressure went on in the final round, Mickelson stood firm with two shot swings on holes seven and 10 – vital in maintaining the ascendancy. His drive on 16 was critical and probably the nail in Koepka’s confidence as he outdrove him with a pinpoint 366 yard bomb.

This was surely one of the great major championships. The PGA Championship has sometimes been maligned as the poor relation of the four majors. Surely this one dispelled that myth.

Year on year it is the strongest field and the Kiawah Island golf course in South Carolina presented the perfect venue for this event. After all, isn’t it about providing a course with plenty of risk and reward factor.

This course did it in spades. Big names missed the cut while lesser names made it. More than one club professional made the cut.

One of the overriding memories is the number of players who saved many shots and then dropped as many or more, killing their chances. Justin Rose had eight birdies in a par round. Mickelson stood tall and now can look forward to the US Open with optimism.

As always, Mickelson was gracious in victory and his press conference must surely be one of the all time best for its frank, measured and thoughtful responses to every single question.

Every question receiving respect and no hint of impatience. Add to that his generous comments about the experience: “I love the game of golf and the challenge of competing against such great players. What an incredible competitor Brooks Koepka is and to have the chance to play in the final group with him was an exceptional honour. Its been fun for me to see his development.”

It is difficult not to think that Mickelson was trying to lessen the obvious disappointment for Koepka who appeared to be a grumpy loser during his press conference. Surely Koepka appreciated he was part of some impressive history and it was a privilege to be part of it. It wasn’t just that Mickelson is the oldest major winner but the oldest by two years and seven months at 50 years and 11 months old.

The question now is can he extend that record himself? With the coveted US Open around the corner maybe, just maybe, he could. Now wouldn’t that be something?