First my idea for 10 top stories in 10 days hit a little road bump as I last wrote on the 22nd and I have been away tending to some family business so a belated Merry Christmas to all, more importantly as New Year is upon us, may you and your families have a safe and prosperous 2011..
2011.. my goodness !! It reminds me of the old saying " days are long, years are short"... I heard one of the kids at the station yesterday saying that his memories of the World Junior Hockey go all the way back to the 90's !!.. seriously ..
When I reflect back on Mickelson's year, I didn't think much of it except for his Masters win, but the numbers are solid.
18 cuts made in 20 events, a win, a second, 6T10's, 13 T25's, 6th on the money list with over $3.8m, 4th in the world...
I don't even remember that much about each round he played at Augusta, but "the shot" he hit on 13, the par 5 dogleg, on Sunday was simply sensational, the shot of the tournament and maybe the shot of his career, especially when you have been watching so many car wrecks on that hole for so many Masters..
He either pulled or over drew his tee shot into the trees at the top of the hill on the dogleg, but got his first break when the ball wasn't up against the trunk, but out where he could do something with it. The second break was he had an opening between two trees with a line to the green, even better to the flag. Now that flag was 207 yards away and the green as you know was protected by Rae's creek and bunkers both short and long, and that flag was in it's Sunday position, cut right over the creek..
His final break was a relatively clean lie in the pine straw. When you play out of pine straw the ground underneath is usually very firm and dry which means you can really hit down on the ball, make solid contact and impart a good ball flight with a lot of backspin..
Mickelson picks up the story..
I had a good lie in the pine needles and I was going to have to go through that gap if I laid up or went for the green. I knew I was going to have to hit a decent shot.
"The gap was a little bit wide. It wasn't huge but it was big enough for a ball to fit through,"
"I needed to trust my swing and hit a shot, and it came off perfect."
"We were in between a six- or five-iron because sometimes, out of the pine needles, the ball will come out a little slow.
"I just felt like it was clean enough that it was going to come out fine and I wanted to hit something hard, so I hit six."
The yardage was perfect, the ball flew high and straight and landed 2 yards over Rae's creek on the green and settled 3 feet from the pin.. staggering.
Being Phil, he of course missed the 3 footer, settled for birdie and went on to beat playing partner Lee Westwood who could only shake his head..
Now you know if he had dumped it in the creek or worse, we would have been talking about how another bone headed play cost Mickelson a major..
He didn't, he won and watch for Augusta to honour that spot with some sort of plaque before they tee it up in 2011..
Next #8.. Carl Pettersson's 60 at our RBC Canadian Open
Bryan Angus
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