Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Nov. 30. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer. Phil Mickelson started and finished this year with some spectacular golf. He opened 2009 with victories on two of the Tour's best courses, Riviera and Doral, and then at the Masters shot a thrilling final round 67 that didn't quite earn him another green jacket but definitely stole the show. This fall Mickelson twice dusted Tiger Woods on Sunday to nab important trophies -- at the Tour Championship and then more recently at a glittery new World Golf Championship in Shanghai, where Phil dazzled new fans to the game with his good play and good humor.
Mickelson arrived in San Francisco to support her husband during the President's Cup
"It's not easy for them," the golf tournament champ says of his wife and mother, both battling breast cancer
The untouchable twosome who usually dominate the top of Sports Illustrated's Fortunate 50 list of the top-earning American athletes don't look so untouchable anymore.
"I just start crying," says the PGA pro when he thinks of Amy, who begins treatment July 1
TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- At times Tuesday, it was hard to tell if Phil Mickelson was a promoter for the PGA Tour or a contender for the PGA Championship.
On Sunday afternoon, moments before he stepped to the 1st tee at the Players Championship for the most momentous round he has played in a while, Phil Mickelson offered his new swing coach a soul handshake and a manly slap on the back. "Thanks for everything, Butch," said Mickelson, and those four little words added yet another layer of intrigue to the ongoing melodrama that is his career. Butch would be Claude Harmon Jr., known far and wide by his nickname and for his work as Tiger Woods's former instructor, most notably during Woods's run from 1999 through 2002, the most dominant golf ever played.
When a victorious Phil Mickelson walked off the final green after winning The Players on Sunday, he threw his arm around new coach and said, "First of many, Butch." But things weren't always so warm and fuzzy between instructor Butch Harmon and his new prized pupil. Just four years ago Harmon--who at the time was coaching Tiger Woods--slammed the then-majorless Mickelson, saying he would never win a big title unless he got over his "pathetic" obsession with driving the ball huge distances.
Phil Mickelson was playing so well at the Players last week, and has such a good record at this week's AT&T Classic at TPC Sugarloaf (three W's, last year by 13 strokes), it seemed well within the realm of possibility that the surging lefty might take advantage of a little-used Tour bylaw and parlay his Sawgrass victory Sunday into a late entry for Sugarloaf. How could he lose? It seemed he would be almost guaranteed to prevail, guaranteed to pad his FedEx Cup and World Ranking points, to edge closer to Tiger, to fatten his bank account by another $972,000.
It didn't take long for Butch Harmon to tweak Phil Mickelson's swing back into championship form. And though they're both mum on the subject of what specifically they've worked on, it's obvious that three changes to his setup have made Lefty's swing tighter, more balanced and easier to control.
Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Nov. 30. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer. Phil Mickelson started and finished this year with some spectacular golf. He opened 2009 with victories on two of the Tour's best courses, Riviera and Doral, and then at the Masters shot a thrilling final round 67 that didn't quite earn him another green jacket but definitely stole the show. This fall Mickelson twice dusted Tiger Woods on Sunday to nab important trophies -- at the Tour Championship and then more recently at a glittery new World Golf Championship in Shanghai, where Phil dazzled new fans to the game with his good play and good humor.
Mickelson arrived in San Francisco to support her husband during the President's Cup
"It's not easy for them," the golf tournament champ says of his wife and mother, both battling breast cancer
The untouchable twosome who usually dominate the top of Sports Illustrated's Fortunate 50 list of the top-earning American athletes don't look so untouchable anymore.
"I just start crying," says the PGA pro when he thinks of Amy, who begins treatment July 1
TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- At times Tuesday, it was hard to tell if Phil Mickelson was a promoter for the PGA Tour or a contender for the PGA Championship.
On Sunday afternoon, moments before he stepped to the 1st tee at the Players Championship for the most momentous round he has played in a while, Phil Mickelson offered his new swing coach a soul handshake and a manly slap on the back. "Thanks for everything, Butch," said Mickelson, and those four little words added yet another layer of intrigue to the ongoing melodrama that is his career. Butch would be Claude Harmon Jr., known far and wide by his nickname and for his work as Tiger Woods's former instructor, most notably during Woods's run from 1999 through 2002, the most dominant golf ever played.
When a victorious Phil Mickelson walked off the final green after winning The Players on Sunday, he threw his arm around new coach and said, "First of many, Butch." But things weren't always so warm and fuzzy between instructor Butch Harmon and his new prized pupil. Just four years ago Harmon--who at the time was coaching Tiger Woods--slammed the then-majorless Mickelson, saying he would never win a big title unless he got over his "pathetic" obsession with driving the ball huge distances.
Phil Mickelson was playing so well at the Players last week, and has such a good record at this week's AT&T Classic at TPC Sugarloaf (three W's, last year by 13 strokes), it seemed well within the realm of possibility that the surging lefty might take advantage of a little-used Tour bylaw and parlay his Sawgrass victory Sunday into a late entry for Sugarloaf. How could he lose? It seemed he would be almost guaranteed to prevail, guaranteed to pad his FedEx Cup and World Ranking points, to edge closer to Tiger, to fatten his bank account by another $972,000.
It didn't take long for Butch Harmon to tweak Phil Mickelson's swing back into championship form. And though they're both mum on the subject of what specifically they've worked on, it's obvious that three changes to his setup have made Lefty's swing tighter, more balanced and easier to control.
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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla., May 13 -- It was a two-man race in the final round of The Players on Sunday, but don't believe everything you saw on NBC. Yes, there was Phil Mickelson, the winner of 30 Tour titles, including three majors. There was his caddie, Jim MacKay (a.k.a. Bones). And there was the kid Mickelson was playing against, the 6-foot-2-inch, 165-pound winner of one John Deere Classic, Sean O'Hair (a.k.a. Bonier).
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- In his third week with a new coach, Phil Mickelson suddenly looks as good as ever.
IRVING, Texas -- Phil Mickelson hit nine of 14 fairways, tied for 45th in the 154-man field, during a first-round 69 at the EDS Byron Nelson Classic on Thursday.
Phil Mickelson is changing coaches, saying Monday he will start working with Butch Harmon with hopes of sorting out driver issues that cost him a chance to win the U.S. Open last year at Winged Foot.
New Orleans is known for minting first-time winners, but Nick Watney's slow waltz to victory at the Zurich Classic last weekend contained very little suspense, especially not after last year's heart-stopper by Chris Couch.
I'll get right to the point: I think it's time for Phil Mickelson to make a coaching change from Rick Smith to Butch Harmon. Here's why: Ten months ago Mickelson was on the verge of winning the U.S. Open and making a serious run at knocking Tiger Woods from the top spot in the World Ranking. Now Mickelson is a distant fourth in the ranking and has a horde of whippersnappers gaining on him fast. The cause of the slide? Mickelson's swing is a mess.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- They walked off Augusta National much the way they came on it, two by two, bundled against the cold. Their misery finally over, they trudged into the scorer's shack where the carnage could be tallied.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- On a day when the winds swirled and the greens hardened, Phil Mickelson carried two drivers in his bag to try and better navigate his way around Augusta National.
The appearance of the two most chronicled players in the game on a warm, cloudy Tuesday at Augusta National begged the question: Can anybody other than Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods win this tournament?
(AP) -- About the only negative memory Phil Mickelson has of Sunday at the Masters last year was finishing his third round in the morning. The sudden clicks of a camera from the tower over the 18th tee when he was at the top of his swing led to a wild shot and ultimately a bogey that reduced his lead to one shot.
Tiger Woods has changed even the nomenclature of golf. He gave us Tiger Slam, idiomatic for winning four major championships in a row, but not in the same calendar year. And he originated cold-shafting, the term for starting predawn practice rounds without so much as a warmup shot.
THEY READ LIKE HANDWRITTEN notes from a bursting-proud grandmother. "Your beautiful children are very fortunate to have such a loving, devoted father. Congratulations on your life, Phil! You are most deserving."Or like cards that your sister might select from the "Encouragement" rack at the Hallmark store.
Say this about Phil Mickelson -- he gives good press conference. After four months in hibernation, "Phil the Thrill" finally turned up this week at the Bob Hope Classic, giving us the chance for another installment of "What Phil Was Really Thinking."
TIGER AND PHIL have not duked it out on a golf course since late August, but that doesn't mean they've stopped competing with each other. Two and a half months after Woods introduced his course-design company, Tiger Woods Design, Mickelson is going public with his own architectural firm: Phil Mickelson Design. Mickelson was expected to announce his venture on Tuesday in Palm Desert, Calif., before making his season debut at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Lefty, who co-designed the Lower course at Whisper Rock in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2001, has already lined up two projects. The first is River Rock, a new development in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains that will include a nine-hole par-3 course designed by his coach, Rick Smith. The second, Diamante Cabo, will be an exclusive development north of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Several other deals are in the works. Wonder if any will have trees down the left side of the 18th fairway?... Speaking of Winged Foot, everyone is in a rush to portray Mickelson's 72n
Tiger Woods has just about everything he needs to be one of the world's most popular athletes except a rival.
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