Golf News for Thursday, April 20, 2006 | Daily Golf Blogs

Chris Baldwin: Leave it to Phil Mickelson to mess with success

You'd think Phil Mickelson would be satisfied with his sudden majors success. After the Masters, it'd be reasonable to assume he'd carry two drivers the rest of his life.

Even into the iHOP at age 73.

But no, not Mickelson. The man always wants to be cast as some golf genius rather than just an extremely talented player. So Mickelson's outthinking himself again, declaring that second driver is out for the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

"Especially now with the U.S. Open, there's just no intention for me to use that driver there," Mickelson told the Associated Press. "I anticipate more 3-woods off tees than drivers, so there's really no need for distance. As long as Winged Foot is, we've got to get in the fairway there."

And so Mickelson's blown his U.S. Open shot with the first round still almost two months away.

Phil really should know better. He's not Tiger Woods. Woods is so supremely good he needs to create these challenges every few years to motivate himself. Making over his swing is a Tiger focus hobby.

Mickelson, by contrast, just needs to stick with what brought him. In this case, the drivers that brought him. This is a player who requires all the karma he can get.

Instead, what does Phil do? He sneers at the golf Gods, sure he can outsmart everyone again.

I'm actually headed to Winged Foot to it see it get into U.S. Open shape and I'll be bringing two drivers. They might not fetch $30 combined on eBay, but they'll still be two drivers. Stay tuned to TravelGolf.com for the story.

Not that anyone's changing Phil's mind.

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