Safety Means First for Mickelson

By THOMAS BONK

Jan. 29, 2004 12 AM PT

All it took was one week for Phil Mickelson to improve his world ranking from 16th to 12th, but that’s the sort of action you expect when you win a tournament in that week.

In the real world, rankings don’t matter all that much, not for someone such as Mickelson, who doesn’t need a number to tell him what’s up. We think we know what’s up with Mickelson, and yet after last weekend at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, it’s hard to believe.

Phil is no mystery on the golf course, or at least he hasn’t been up to now. He is the guy who airs it out on every hole, going for broke, shooting for the flagsticks, never laying up, never backing down. And until Sunday, not winning in the last 18 months.

The Mickelson we are accustomed to is many things. He is imaginative, he is popular, he is talented, and he is assertive. One thing he isn’t is dull.

Now we discover that Mickelson is also smart, a 33-year-old who has learned a few new tricks.

At the Hope, that was Phil hitting irons off some tees. That was Phil laying up on a par-five on the back side Sunday. That was Phil aiming for a safe spot to the right of the 18th green instead of going for the pin -- not once, but twice.

Not only were these the right plays, they were the safe plays. Safe? Mickelson? This is a new year, and for at least one week, this new strategy paid off. Did he learn enough to do it again?

No one has been shy in offering Mickelson, a 22-time PGA Tour winner, advice on how to refine his game. They always began at the first tee, where Mickelson pulled his driver out of his bag and had one goal for his golf ball -- go farther than anybody else.

A technology devotee, Mickelson was obsessed with distance. He wasn’t listening to any advice. Distance is what mattered now and in the future, and anybody who didn’t climb aboard this philosophical, titanium bandwagon would wind up getting run over.

Only it didn’t work out for him last year. Sure, he averaged 306 yards off the tee, third only to Hank Kuehne and John Daly, but he had trouble finding a fairway with a compass, a map and a bloodhound. Mickelson was 189th out of 190 players in driving accuracy, hitting only 49% of fairways.

That failure, which led to chopping out of the rough on far too many occasions, put pressure on how many greens he hit. Mickelson ranked 107th in greens in regulation, a low success rate of 64.8%.

One week, one victory and one philosophical change into 2004, Mickelson shot 30 under par. He made 38 birdies, and no one made more. Mickelson has owned stats like that before, but not these: He hit 50 of 69 fairways and 68 of 91 greens and averaged only 283.1 yards off the tee.

It worked once at the Hope, and it will probably work again, if Mickelson decides that’s the way to play. Chances are he won’t, though, that he’ll once again be seduced by technology-driven, overheated, distance-related issues. After all, it was only one week in the desert, where the courses were pretty much room service for the pros.

In any event, what Mickelson did at the Hope was take a course in course management, and he passed it. What’s equally impressive is that Mickelson appeared to be in improved physical condition instead of that borderline paunchy look.

The only kind of club Mickelson used to choose was either a driver, a sandwich or one around a golf course. Now it’s 24 Hour Fitness.

Mickelson said his frame of mind was positive, which could only be a good thing. It wasn’t that way last year when his wife, Amy, endured a difficult pregnancy and Mickelson’s game clearly was affected.

Last year he spent time trying to fix his mechanics and searching for what was wrong. This year, Mickelson says he already knows what to do, he has a direction, and he’s getting better by working on his game.

Everyone should be happy about this. It was only 13 months ago that Mickelson ended 2002 as the second-ranked golfer in the world and had the role as the perfect rival for Tiger Woods. There have been a few along the way, including David Duval, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia.

Now we can see the possibility of Mickelson’s going for it on this particular hole, the only one where he never needs to lay up. He can go full throttle trying to catch Tiger, just don’t try the same thing every time out on the golf course, such as this week’s FBR Open at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Keep your eye on Mickelson, see whether he’s serious or swinging from his heels again. The ranking will tell us which direction he’s headed.

This Week

PGA TOUR

FBR Open

* When: Today-Sunday.

* Where: TPC of Scottsdale, Ariz. (7,059 yards, par 71).

* Purse: $4 million. Winner’s share: $720,000.

* TV: USA (today-Friday, 4-6 p.m., delayed) and Channel 7 (Saturday-Sunday, noon-3 p.m.).

* 2003 winner: Vijay Singh.

* Next week: Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

Skins Game