Sports

Phil endures another adventure

Scott Chancey

AUGUSTA – Phil Mickelson usually leads to his own undoing.

He has won three majors, including two Masters, yes.

But when his name is brought up, OTHER images come to mind.

Say, that late meltdown at Winged Foot in the 2006 U.S. Open? It’s quite from the ordinary -- unless you’re talking about Greg Norman at the Masters -- that a player can simply gift-wrap a major championship for another player.

But that’s what happened. And then there are other tournaments where he simply tries to make something out of nothing, trying to put a proverbial square peg into a round hole. Patience had never been a forte’ of Mickelson’s, and in THIS game, patience is more than just a virtue.

It’s a lifeline.

On Saturday, however, Mickelson seemed to be making a charge toward his third green jacket, and he had a rock-star following while walking the greens at Augusta National Golf Club. Whatever it is about this guy, it works for drawing fans.

But as one of those following Mickelson, one had to be thinking in the back of his or her mind – when is it going to happen? When is Mickelson going to try something stupid and play his way off the leaderboard? Would it be a matter of if? Or when?.

This year at Augusta, however, that didn’t happen. Mickelson played 1 under par in the first round and went 3 under the next day. And on Saturday, he moved to 6 under for the tournament with a birdie at No. 2.

He bogeyed the sixth? So what. Leader Trevor Immelman had one too on No. 4.

But on the eighth hole, Mickelson’s all-out, no-holds brand of golf had nothing to do with the next bogey on No. 8.

It was only a flash of bad luck.

His approach shot which would probably have led to an easy birdie on any other day hit the flagstick and the ball caromed back to where all Mickelson could do was settle for bogey.

Bad luck? This was the kind of sequence that makes you search back through the sports history books and wonder if any of his distant relatives traded Babe Ruth or wouldn’t let a billy goat into a Chicago Cubs World Series game.

“I don’t know what happened,” Mickelson said. “I certainly had a little misstep on 8, but gosh, it didn’t feel bad. I felt like I was going to have a good round (Sunday). I don’t know what to say.”

Mickelson then bogeyed the 10th and 12th holes, but showed resilience birdieing the 13th and 14th? Then on the 16th?

By round’s end, a shot landed in the back-right bunker, leading to a double bogey.

And if one thought the shot off the flagpole was quite a feat, his approach shot on No. 18 hit a TV tower back left of the green and it almost landed on the ninth. At least he was able to save par there.

The third round, looking back, proved quite the circus for Mickelson. He’s tied for seventh, nine shots behind Immelman, but that zany sequence at the eighth hole at least is not the result of just Phil being Phil.

It’s just golf.

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