Year of the Phil?

The Pebble Beach Pro-Am is always an entertaining tournament. We are able to see people go out there and hack it up a little bit, not a lot, but enough to make us feel better, and we get to watch the pros at the same venue. Last year's Masters champion, Phil Mickelson won his second straight event, shooting a not dominating, 1-over-par 73. What was dominating however, was his wire-to-wire lead which never allowed another golfer within four strokes, which is what he ended up winning by. Not only was it Mickelson's first wire-to-wire of his career, it was the first in the 68 years of this tournament.

Phil wasn't supposed to do this this year. After he finished last season finally winning a Major and being in the mix at the end of all of the others; he was supposed to kind of take it easy this year. He really wasn't expected to do much this season after he switched from Titleist to Calloway just before the Ryder Cup. Anyone who follows golf knows what transpired at the Cup. Nothing short of atrocious golf by the team and Mickelson with his new clubs. On the deciding hole, Mickelson hit his drive so far left that Woods could barely get a swing on the ball as it was almost up against the out of bounds fence. His play in the Ryder Cup prompted everyone to question why he changed sponsors and to give up on him winning another Major this year, maybe not even a tournament.

Even though he won last week in Arizona, people again were questioning how many tourneys he would win after he said he was going to go for distance over accuracy from now on. Granted, that usually isn't a great decision, especially for all of us weekend hacks, but Mickelson is a pro, and we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Just like Tiger saying he's "close" all the time, who knows these players better than themselves? Why should we even question their decisions? I guess the reason is because then the people on sports radio and television wouldn't have much to talk about. Shunning accuracy was going to be another bad decision Mickelson would make, just like seemingly always going for the green in two; and always playing aggressively.

The past two weeks however, he has been as dominant as Singh last year or Tiger of the past. If he keeps playing the way he has the past two weeks, Mickelson will be tough to beat this season. Obviously I don't expect him to win every week, but he has the ability to. As far as the Majors go, he could win all of them, and not just because he is playing in all of them. He has already proven he can win at Augusta, so why wouldn't he be able to do it again? The U.S. Open is being played at Pinehurst No.2 this season, the same place it was played in 1999 when he and Payne Stewart dueled to the finish with the late Stewart gaining a one stroke victory. The British Open and PGA Championsip are to be played at St. Andrews and Baltusrol, respectively, and are both courses which Mickelson will be able to manage well and should be in the running to win each of the Majors on Sunday.

After the weight of actually winning a Major has been lifted from Phil's shoulders, I think he will come into this entire year being even more relaxed than he seemingly always is. We saw what happened in the Majors last year after he won in Augusta, he played better than he ever had before and almost won the U.S. Open also. I see him winning at least one more Major this year, and possibly three. As great a year he had last year, this season promises to be even more ful-phil-ing (I couldn't resist).

-Until next time...