For Once, Second Best

We now return you to regular coverage of the PGA Tour.

Actually, the best thing to come out of Phil Mickelson’s victory in the Buick Invitational on Sunday was the confirmation that there still is a PGA Tour, and not just a bunch of guys playing bit parts since Tiger Woods turned the golf world into his personal miniseries the last few weeks.

Look, Woods could win every single week and it wouldn’t get old. Greatness never does. It just won’t be any fun unless we have a fair share of guys who can at least give him a good run, the way Ernie Els did in Maui and the way Mickelson did by pulling out of a nose dive just in time to end Woods’ run at the record books at Torrey Pines on Sunday.

We need foils and worthy adversaries, not stooges and fall guys.

When accomplished players with Mickelson’s stature start to go down like just another Matt Gogel, the entire tour takes on the feel of a barnstorming circuit at Woods’ mercy. That’s the direction things were headed Sunday, when Woods slugged his way back from an early seven-stroke deficit six days after overcoming a seven-shot disadvantage to beat Gogel at the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

“It was important for me to win again,” Mickelson said. “It was important for me to go head-to-head against the best player in the world and know that I can beat him.”

This from a guy who had already won 13 tour events and almost $9 million in prize money. A guy who had already held off Woods in similar circumstances right up I-5 at La Costa two years ago.

That just shows you the level of Woods’ dominance, particularly in his run of six consecutive tournament victories that ended Sunday. Perfectly good players had reasonable doubts that they could ever beat him. They felt they needed to show that it could be done.

And then practically apologized for doing it.

“I didn’t want to be the bad guy,” Mickelson said. “I’ve been amazed by his performance. I wasn’t trying to end the streak, I was trying to win the tournament.”

Mickelson led by six strokes to start the day, and by four when he made the turn. Yet Woods forged a tie with a birdie on 13.

At that point Mickelson looked as if he wanted to make a break for Tijuana and drop out of sight.

A once-promising career appeared to be unraveling right before our eyes. He had not won since August 1998. His drought would be longer if the rain-delayed Pebble Beach event had finished when scheduled in February.

Now he stood on the brink of losing a tournament that he once held firmly in his grip. It’s the type of loss that lands golfers on psychologists’ couches.

With one swing on the par-five 13th hole, Mickelson produced an unlikely birdie putt to stop a skid that almost cost him the Buick Invitational and, potentially, a once-promising career.

Mickelson dumped his tee shot among the eucalyptus leaves in the rough on the left side. He chipped back onto the fairway, then launched an approach from 114 yards out that landed within three feet of the pin.

Mickelson made the putt for a birdie. Then he birdied 14 after Woods committed a bogey there and soon Mickelson was in control while Woods was fighting Shigeki Maruyama just to maintain a share of second place.

Technically, Mickelson didn’t beat Woods and the golf course didn’t beat Woods. Woods beat Woods.

Woods’ drives landed in the fairway only six times--and that includes his tee shot on the first hole that ricocheted off a chair onto the smooth grass. (“Called bank,” Woods said.) He also reached only 10 greens in regulation.

“To even be under par as good as I was hitting it today, it was kind of a miracle,” Woods said.

It’s tough to tell what should loom as the bigger threat to the tour at large: the fact that Tiger had an even chance to win this tournament on a day he had such poor accuracy, or the fact that his game stands so much room for improvement.

The reason he found himself in such big holes the past two tournaments was his inability to make putts in the eight- to 15-foot range. You figure he has to improve in that area the longer he plays, the better feel he develops with his putter, the more times he makes the tour rounds and learns the characteristics of all the greens.

That should more than make up for the distance he will lose off his tee and approach shots when he gets older and his body becomes less flexible.

In other words, this could be last call for the rest of the guys, the final shot before Woods gets the hang of this thing and declares it closing time.

For the short term, there’s this ominous development from the Buick Invitational.

“I actually feel more confident than I did at the beginning of the week because of the way I played this week,” Woods said. “You saw how poorly I hit it at times. The shot was just to scramble and get it around, hang in there and get up and down as many times as I did and give myself a chance to win, you’ve got to be proud of yourself for that.”

Mickelson had even more reasons to feel proud Sunday. It’s good to have him back in the mix.

David Duval, Sergio Garcia and anyone else who feels up to the challenge is welcome to join.

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HARD ACTS TO FOLLOW

Records were meant to be broken, but these individual marks may be exceptions:

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BYRON NELSON

Won 11 tournaments in a row in 1945. In 75 tournaments from 1944-48, he won 34, finished second 18 times and finished out of the top 10 only once.

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JOE DiMAGGIO

Got a base hit in 56 consecutive games before he was held hitless by Cleveland on July 17, 1941. He then started a new streak in which he hit in 18 consecutive games.

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CAL RIPKEN JR.

Played in 2,632 consecutive games before voluntarily ending the streak. on Sept. 20, 1998.

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EDWIN MOSES

Won 107 consecutive 400-meter hurdle races from 1977-87.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com