Northern Trust Open round four: Why Mickelson is Lucky Phil

Imagine Phil Mickelson as Tina Turner, only this time singing “What’s luck got to do with it?” I know, it’s a stretch, but the real question is how much he’s entitled to sing it.

He was, after all, extremely lucky with the weather, missing out on the winds that allowed him and 54 others who kicked off Thursday morning through to the weekend, against just 23 who started Thursday afternoon. He was also very lucky in just having one inexperienced opponent to finish off on the Sunday. It was Jeff Quinney’s four-bogey stretch down the back nine that sealed the deal rather than anything particularly startling from Mickelson.

You can argue that as things toughened up over the weekend and the greens got noticeably firmer, Lefty showed fortitude where all bar Quinney wilted. To a degree you also make your own luck - there are few players who could come back to win from being beaten in a playoff and then missing a cut. I believe this is at least the third time Mickelson has won straight after an MC.

But for all the growing confidence Lefty expresses in his game, it doesn’t seem to have moved on a huge amount from last year. In its mercurial patterns, it has probably gone a bit backwards. His stats this week rather echo his visit here last year, except this time he was shorter off the tee, found fewer fairways, and hit marginally fewer greens. It was only his putting that showed an improvement.

Goodness knows what the comparison would have been like if he had been in the crew that had the worst of the weather.

PS: One other interesting tidbit on Lefty’s game came in his final media conference when he revealed that because he was using softer balls he couldn’t hear the sound of impact properly and overcompensated with his putting stroke. So he changed the insert on his putter to increase the noise level and voila! - better putting. Think I’ll stick to my simple metal head though, if it’s all the same. But there’s an interesting read-up on the subject here.