AT&T Pebble Beach, round four: Mickelson flies like a butterfly...

Pebble Beach, hole five: Phil Mickelson has lost his ball. Cue double bogey. Aha, you think, here we go again. Only I didn’t. In fact I missed the entire episode (don’t ask, something to do with food poisoning!), which is probably all to the good, since I would have been sorely tempted to start laying Lefty in the aftermath. And that, as we now know, would have been an awful mistake.

Quite where that all-round transformation in the space of just a week came from is anyone’s guess. In his mind as much as anything I imagine. It has distinct echoes of last year: Lefty trying punters’ patience as he opens the season with a new game he’s trying out - the double driver strategy as I recall - before suddenly bursting forth like a beautiful new butterfly in the BellSouth and then, of course, the Masters.

The driver has again been his focus this year and something has obviously clicked because he has discovered accuracy, not one of his strong points in the days when he preferred to blast it as far as he could. Only 10 missed fairways in the AT&T in some of the most atrocious conditions you can play. “I think I’m going to be a better driver for the rest of my career,” he told us afterwards. Mark that man down for the Masters!

It wasn’t just the driver of course: it was an all-round superior performance. First for putting, first for greens in regulation, fourth for accuracy, fourth for distance. It’s not often you see that combination from anyone.

Shame the Davis Love play never happened; he just couldn’t get his putter going Sunday. He seems to be gearing up for the Matchplay. And thanks to Lefty I was spared a hit to my pocket from John Mallinger. I still puzzle over that.

But keep an eye on Greg Owen, who seems to be keeping his back problems in check. He came to the fore about this time last year and will be eager to erase the memory of that two-putt from 3ft that cost him the BayHill.