Nissan Open round four: Hubris, not nerves, did Mickelson in

We are just going to have to learn to love this self-destructive tendency in Phil Mickelson and get on with it, because he’s stuck with it.

Among all the acres of opinion on Lefty’s collapse at the Riviera Sunday there is one word I haven’t spotted: hubris. That’s my choice. Pure and simple, Mickelson starts to believe so much he’s the man to put Tiger Woods in his place, he just gets ahead of himself.

He was coasting down the back nine, happy to be on top of things in a way he hadn’t been Saturday, confident that all the vigorous challenges had fallen back one by one - Ernie Els, Robert Allenby, Charles Howell III, Rich Beem. Oh what a wonderful Sunday, what an inspired decision to take his new-found driving skills to one of the tightest courses on the map, if Tiger can do streaks so can …

My colleague Tim McDonald puts it down to ‘jelly-belly’ nerves, but I can’t be having that. A 30-time winner? No, it was the hare and the tortoise (sorry Charles). Lefty let his concentration and discipline slip and failed to spot Howell’s late charge in time. Then he just got increasingly ticked off and confused and compounded his bad play.

Call it just another Winged Foot moment.

Does that make it a victory by default for Howell? It was dogged, but certainly not the superhuman effort I thought would be necessary. Maybe the real winner was his caddie, who by all accounts had to keep pushing a doubting Howell to believe he could win (using the example of Rutgers we are told, which means diddly to me I’m afraid). Strikes me that’s been his problem in the past.

Other positives from this first class contest? Dosh for a start: that was layers’ heaven as various players took their moment in the sun and Mickelson’s price went right to the floor before his final crash. Almost £2.7m ($5.25m) went on Lefty’s head at odds-on on Betfair’s win market. Oh happy lay!

On the playing front, a clutch of guys look hot for a win soon, not least Els. After charging into second Sunday his putter let him down and then other bits went to pieces, but this was a tough course to be aggressive on and he looks ready to rock ‘n roll. The fourth top ten in a row suggests glory soon for Allenby, while Sergio Garcia’s performance in his first US outing impressed. Although he tied for third Jim Furyk never seemed to get a real fire going, but that’s his third top ten in a row.

A final round 65 signals Pat Perez may at last be hitting form and Carl Pettersson looks to be emerging from his slump. Watch out too for the young rookie Anthony Kim, whose 64 on Sunday on this course in this company marks him out. I wonder whether, given the conditions, we might find this year’s US Open winner among the leaders here.

One other thought: is Sunday further evidence of the perils of the last group media circus that accompanies Woods and Mickelson? I just note that Lefty’s playing partners, Padraig Harrington and Beem, were the only ones in the top 17 to finish with over-par rounds.

PS - A correction: Looking back over my preview I realise I erroneously stated Howell won the Nissan in 2003. Of course he lost in a playoff to Mike Weir. More haste, less speed and a rather important tweak to my stats software is the order of the day!