Finding two paths after the Nissan

When their paths crossed a year ago at Riviera Country Club, Charles Howell III and Phil Mickelson wound up shaking hands, climbing into carts and then taking off in opposite directions . . . paths neither could have expected at the time.

Howell won the last Nissan Open, now the Northern Trust Open, when he beat Mickelson in a three-hole playoff, and his stock should have made a straight line north.

After all, Riviera was Howell’s second breakthrough. It was his second PGA Tour victory and it came four years, four months and 12 days after his first, a span of 127 tournaments since he’d won the 2002 Michelob Championship.

The sky seemed the limit for Howell, but as it turned out, there was a low ceiling.

Howell didn’t have another top-10 finish after March 11, missed seven cuts and decided a makeover was in order. He started this year with a new equipment company and golf ball, Bridgestone; a new driver, TaylorMade; a new putter, Scotty Cameron; and a new Cleveland wedge.

Instead of everything coming together with that victory at Riviera, there were all new pieces for Howell.

“The win at Riviera was a huge confidence builder, but I didn’t build on it,” said Howell, 28. “I didn’t really do anything with it like I wanted to or could have.”

If the road was that bumpy for the winner, what could it have meant for Mickelson?

As it turned out, losing was a turning point for Mickelson too, and after his defeat he wasted no time and veered quickly onto a positive path.

Just two days later, Mickelson stood on the driving range at the Gallery in Tucson to work with swing coach Butch Harmon for the first time. The idea was to shore up his sometimes leaky driving and become more consistently accurate.

Mickelson had won at Pebble Beach, steering his way around the coastal real estate, but remained unsatisfied with his driving. It took losing at Riviera to persuade him he needed a change.

Despite having won for the third time at Pebble Beach, he knew he wasn’t right.

“Sometimes I might be able to hit it well, but it might be kind of a Band-Aid fix, if you will,” Mickelson said. “I didn’t have the confidence in it, even though I was hitting a lot of good drives [at Pebble Beach] and even at Riviera.

“I felt like I didn’t have the confidence in my swing, even though it was coming out OK.”

Out went Rick Smith and in went Harmon, a switch that paid off four tournaments after Tucson. Mickelson tied for third at the Byron Nelson, tied for third at the Wachovia and then won the prestigious Players Championship. He opened with a 67, closed with a 69. Mickelson’s 11-under 277 beat Sergio Garcia by two shots.

After 32 victories on the PGA Tour, including the 2004 and 2006 Masters and the 2005 PGA Championship, Mickelson’s Hall of Fame credentials are indisputable.

But at 37, he is far from finished, so when he realized there was still room for improvement in one of the most defining areas of his game, he went after it.

Mickelson saw the difference from where he stood in the tee box at Sawgrass; he liked it then and still does.

“I’m not missing it big, and my ball flight now is flying inside the parameters of the fairway rather than starting outside and curving back in,” he said. “A lot of the curves have been taken out of the flight, and all this has come about since working with Butch, and that was our goal.”

Like Howell, Mickelson failed to take advantage of his momentum after winning, but it wasn’t his fault. He injured his wrist chopping out of the rough during a practice round at Oakmont Country Club a couple of weeks before the U.S. Open.

He couldn’t return until August, but by late in the month, he tied for seventh at the Barclays and then won the Deutsche Bank, where he closed with a 66 and held off Tiger Woods by two shots.

“That was a turning point, because I hadn’t done that in the past,” Mickelson said.

But it was months earlier, on that final Sunday at Riviera, where it all changed for Mickelson and Howell.

Mickelson led by one shot and needed only to par the 18th to win, but he hit a shaky drive into the left rough, an eight-iron short of the green, left his chip 17 feet short and missed the putt. Howell, who saved par by making a seven-footer at the 18th, later remembered how he had lost at the Sony a couple of weeks before when he failed to get it up and down on the 72nd hole.

Ten times a runner-up between his first and second victories, Howell was due.

Tiger Woods said Howell is an underachiever in the victory department.

“There’s no question he should have won more out here, he’s got so much talent,” Woods said. “He understands now how to do it.”

Howell realizes the best way to approach winning is to build on it, something he couldn’t do a year ago. Mickelson went in the other direction, even though it didn’t seem to be the right one at the time. For two star-crossed stars, it was their Riviera moment. Chances are there may be another.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com