Phil Is Back....For This Week

First your fun fact of the day:  Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods have now won on back-to-back weeks on the PGA Tour nine times in their careers.  It makes you wonder if the two really have been driven by the other--and they make it a point to one-up the other as much as possible?  I was thinking on Sunday why we have never seen those two involved in a classic playoff--or even in the final group on Sunday battling for the title.  It's like we were denied the real rivalry that previous generations enjoyed with Jack and Tom, Jack and Arnie, or Hogan, Snead and Nelson.

Reason why I love Phil #4,517: There has never been a more inconsistant superstar golfer in the history of the game than Phil Mickelson?  I'm too young to remember Jack and Arnie in their primes--but I never read about how either of them would be also-rans for two weeks, barely making the cut and playing out the string--and then blowing the field away the next week. 

And for Joe Ten Handicapper, that IS the way we play.  Hopelessly lost for two or three rounds--not hitting a single good shot--not making any putts on the course or on the practice range.  Then--without making a swing change or tweaking our equipment or even putting in extra hours of practice (usually the exact opposite--letting the clubs rest for a few day)--we go out and shoot a career low round.  When Tiger was in his prime, he was great just about every week--always a threat to win an almost always finishing top ten.  But that is an unattainable goal for the rest of us,  Whereas Phil is barely average--then exceptional--then ordinary again--just like us.

It would be nice if we could have Butch Harmon take a look at our swings--drop his two lines of advice for five-grand--and suddenly have us back on track.  It would also be nice to have Callaway give us their newest driver--custom fit to our swing--to magically find every fairway as far out as we have ever hit it.  I've seen on other golf sites that the new RazorFit that Phil is playing is the "drastic change" that he was actually talking about a few weeks ago--and that this has been nothing more than a cleverly-crafted marketing ploy.  Personally, I think Phil was doing the math every shot this week--figuring out how much more money he will keep by winning in Arizona than winning in California.

So now we get a couple of days to wonder what Phil will show at Pebble Beach.  He's defending champ--thanks to a specatuclar final round (paired with Tiger) that served as another reminder of how spectacular his talents are.  You may recall, that was followed up with a playoff loss at Riveria--and it seemed like Phil was going to be the clear-cut favorite to win at Augusta.  Then one horrible tee shot on the 4th hole on Sunday sent Lefty from unbeatable to unbearable in five seconds.

As a wise fake movie character once said: "Phil is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."