Great Mickelson Article

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/news/2002/04/09/life_of_reilly/

Good article in terms of portraying Phil's personality. (As I said below I think he's a nice guy and a good guy.) But I don't think it's quite accurate, because I think Phil has really snapped since having some bitter defeats. He cares a lot, and cares to the point he's on tilt. I think his chances are bad to win a major right now, but I think he can change his outlook. If he's as smart as I think he is, he'll very quietly seek a sports psychologist. Yesterday Phil said people don't know how fast the greens are at Augusta, Bay Hill, and the TPC, which he offered as an excuse for his green-hockey incidents and I think as a pre-excuse for this week. TPC greens are nowhere near as tough as what the players will see this week. Phil is justifying his own failure to the public, with his statements about greens and his necessity to play aggressively. That doesn't mean he's a bad guy by any means, but he needs to change something. And if he should happen to win a major, I think he will improve immediately. He will be able to cope with the "boredom" of hitting 2-irons 270 down the middle to set up a "boring" approach. And the boredom of paying attention on short putts. And he'll be more fun to watch than he is now, because I cringe seeing guys tormented on the course.

Hard to say what's really going on in his head, but I suspect if he can put himself in a situation like Norman had, where he's up 5 shots, going into Sunday, he will play those boring shots despite what he is saying now and there's no doubt in my mind that he's capable of getting to the five shot up point.. I guess only time will tell..


I really feel bad for a lot of these guys playing when Tiger is really putting up good showings in every tournament.. I'll bet that's tougher on the guys than anything..