AUGUSTA, Ga. – Phil Mickelson’s return to Augusta National Golf Club got off to an uncomfortable start.
There was the guarded scrum with reporters on Tuesday. Conflicting reports from that night’s Champions Dinner, where some described Mickelson as quiet and others, such as Nick Faldo, said Mickelson “couldn’t stop talking.” And Mickelson, according to The Fried Egg, “half-hiding” behind columns on the veranda of the clubhouse on Wednesday. Not to mention Mickelson’s explanation for why he’s down 25 pounds: “I stopped eating food.” OK then.
But as this 87th Masters has gone on, Mickelson has settled in, warming up both on the golf course and off of it.
Full-field scores from the 87th Masters Tournament
The 52-year-old Mickelson, a three-time green jacket winner but without a Masters finish better than T-18 since his co-runner-up in 2015, sits just outside the top 10 at 4 under through 36 holes. His 1-under 71 in the opening round was vintage Mickelson, highlighted by a birdie at the par-5 second after Mickelson hit driver from the pine straw for his second shot and lowlighted by three bogeys and double from the fairway at No. 11.
A day later, Mickelson was quite tidy. Sure, he missed nine greens, but his short game, like it has for decades (just not as much recently), saved him. Other than a fat chip at the par-3 sixth, where the pin was placed just on the back shelf, that produced a double bogey, Mickelson had no other blemishes. Mickelson capped a throwback 3-under 69 by stuffing his approach at No. 18 to 5 feet and calmly rolling the birdie.
He then calmly rolled into the interview area.
“With one exception of a poor chip on 6, I had a lot of good saves around the green, bunker shots, good 6-footers, and scored,” Mickelson said. “That’s what I needed to do yesterday, and I could have gone really low. I’m actually looking forward to the weekend. I know I’ve been hitting it, playing better than I’ve been scoring, and I’m looking forward to just putting one round together that I know I’m capable of, and if I do that, it’s going to be a really fun weekend.”
Mickelson’s nice play has also seemed to spark some life in front of the microphone. In the past two days, Mickelson has talked about “salty” drives, “acceleratory” and “deceleratory” muscles, how he’s gleaned more from Hy Flyers teammates than his instructor, Andrew Getson, lately, and why Augusta National is more spiritual than therapeutic. Heck, he even quoted the movie, “Dodgeball.”
Then he delivered his Phil-est quote of the week.
“I’m going to go on a tear pretty soon,” said Mickelson, who has yet to finish better than T-27 in three LIV starts this year and is still without a top-10 showing in non-LIV events since his 2021 PGA victory.
“Even though the scores haven’t shown it, like I’m hitting so many good shots, pretty soon I’m going to have a really low one,” he continued. “When that happens and it clicks, then the game feels easy again. Then I stop putting pressure on myself, and the scores just start to fall into place. Like you wouldn’t think that at 52. You’d say, oh, well, what a great couple of days. Really all it is, it’s just on the precipice of playing as well as I played 15, 20 years ago because I’m seeing that when I’m at home, I’m seeing that in practice. I’m just not quite letting it happen when I’m out in the tournaments yet.”
And this “tear,” will it happen this weekend?
“It’s possible,” Mickelson said. “Who knows when it will click. It could click tomorrow. I don’t know. Part of it is just slowing my mind down and letting it happen and then it clicks. But that’s kind of the biggest challenge in the game is not forcing it.”
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