An Early-Bird Special

In the PGA Championship’s first version of “Monday Morning Golf” in 19 years, Phil Mickelson nudged in a two-foot putt to birdie the 18th hole at Baltusrol Golf Club, then took off his cap and wiped his face on his sleeve, perhaps symbolizing the wiping away of all doubt about his rightful place among major championship winners.

This wasn’t like the Masters of 2004, but it felt darned good to Mickelson, who came back Monday morning to finish off the five holes left over from Sunday’s storm-interrupted final round and claimed the second major title of his 13-year professional career in his 50th attempt, this one by the margin of a single shot.

“This has been an absolutely amazing week,” Mickelson said after finishing a final round of two-over-par 72 for a winning total of four-under 276.

If anyone was looking for validation, this was where it was found, after four-plus days of sometimes brilliant, sometimes backward, but always entertaining golf.

As was the case when he won at Augusta in 2004, Mickelson needed a birdie at the last hole to win. It was a historic turn of events. He is only the second player to have won the PGA Championship with a birdie on the 72nd hole, playing in the final pairing of the day.

The other is Bob Tway, who won in 1986, beating Greg Norman by holing a bunker shot on the last day at Inverness in Toledo. Coincidently, that was also the last PGA Championship held over until Monday because of bad weather.

Time is sometimes strained at majors and although it may seem long ago, it was actually only Sunday afternoon when Mickelson and Davis Love III started the fourth round with a one-shot lead over Thomas Bjorn and a two-shot lead over Steve Elkington.

All would play important parts in Monday’s truncated finale, which took less than an hour.

Bjorn’s 12-foot birdie putt at the telltale 650-yard 17th drew him even with Mickelson at three under par, the same total Elkington would post. Both Bjorn and Elkington looked at and missed makable birdie putts at the 18th, Elkington from 10 feet and Bjorn from 20, so it was left to Mickelson to break the stalemate.

Bjorn said he thought the ball was going in when it was just a foot from the hole.

“It wasn’t to be,” he said. “You can stand there and say you hit a great putt, but if they don’t go in, they’re not counting in the right direction and this one didn’t.”

Love had chances, but no birdies, down the stretch and his 74 left him in a tie for fourth with Tiger Woods, whose 68, completed Sunday afternoon, wasn’t quite enough this time.

Elkington said Mickelson deserved credit for playing from the lead all week.

“It would have been nice to be able to make four on 18 to put pressure on him, rather than [Mickelson] having a free shot at a birdie,” Elkington said. “You know, he led the tournament all week. It’s a hard course to hold the lead on.”

It was a hard course for everyone, it seemed. Defending champion Vijay Singh, only two shots behind Mickelson when play resumed Monday morning, disappeared when he bogeyed two of the last three holes for a 74 and an even-par total of 280 that dropped him into a tie for 10th.

All week, the 554-yard par-five 18th, a slight dogleg left to a casually elevated green, ranked statistically as the easiest hole on the course and Mickelson sent his drive safely down the fairway.

Right there, he asked for some help, tapping with his three-wood on a plaque in the fairway that marked the spot where Jack Nicklaus hit a one-iron on his way to winning the 1967 U.S. Open.

“I wanted some good karma,” Mickelson explained.

It was soon to come. He had 228 yards to the front of the green for his second shot, but missed the green and the ball caught up in the deep rough, about 40 feet from the pin.

Tough position? No sweat, Mickelson said.

“It was a chip shot that I had hit tens of thousands of times in my backyard,” he said. “The ball popped up nicely and trickled down by the hole.”

When he saw the position of the ball, Mickelson’s swing coach, Rick Smith, wasn’t worried at all.

“I thought the hard part was done,” Smith said. “His skill level is so high in difficult environments.”

And so Mickelson’s short-game prowess proved a powerful ally. He sent the ball high into the air and rolling on a line toward the hole until it stopped two feet away.

That was kick-in range and Mickelson knew it, raising both his arms to celebrate the shot of the tournament. It was all but over.

It took exactly 56 minutes for Monday’s leftover round to be completed, but judged in the context of Mickelson’s career, it seemed much longer. The foundation for his No. 4 world ranking had been constructed more on his 26 PGA Tour victories than his single major triumph.

More was expected of him, and this time, Mickelson, 35, came through with a clear-cut decision that left no doubt.

He said he was relaxed even after having slept on the four-foot par putt on the 14th that was left over from Sunday. Sometimes, something as elementary as a short, uphill, left-to-right four-footer on perfect greens can upset a player, but Mickelson said he was serene, composed, prepared.

“It was a fun week, but it was a very stressful week,” he said. “Having the lead after each night, and having an extra night just added to the stress and difficulty and the challenge of it, which is why I think it feels so good right now.”

With two major titles, in consecutive years, Mickelson is halfway to a career grand slam, which is a far cry from the situation he found himself in before the events of Monday morning. This was so new to him that he had a hard time putting it into perspective.

“I haven’t really thought much about it,” he said. “It feels great to have won it, but even before I won Augusta, I never really doubted that I would eventually do it. And even after Augusta, having not won a major or come close this year, I didn’t doubt the fact that it would ever happen again, I just didn’t know when.”

So his timing was a little off. If that’s the worst that can be said about Mickelson now, he has indeed come a very long way.

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Keeping score

Phil Mickelson captured his second major championship Monday when he birdied the 18th hole after Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjorn had missed their birdie attempts. Final scores at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club (par 70), Springfield, N.J., and how each of the three major winners did this year:

*--* Player 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total Par Phil Mickelson 67 65 72 72 276 -4 Steve Elkington 68 70 68 71 277 -3 Thomas Bjorn 71 71 63 72 277 -3 Tiger Woods 75 69 66 68 278 -2 Davis Love III 68 68 68 74 278 -2

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Complete scores...D8

*--* 2005 MAJOR WINNERS Tiger Woods * Masters First * U.S. Open Second * British Open First * PGA Championship Tied for fourth Phil Mickelson * Masters 10th * U.S. Open Tied for 33rd * British Open Tied for 60th * PGA Championship First Michael Campbell * Masters Missed cut * U.S. Open First * British Open Tied for fifth * PGA Championship Tied for sixth

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