Adams Hybrid Advances ( 5)
Couples, Watson, Wow! ( 7)
Masters Day-By-Day ( 11)
Master
Phil
The Greening
Of Phil Mickelson
This one was a Masters for The Ages.
And The Aged.
Saturday, traditionally Moving Day,
was a moving day at Augusta National.
It was also a crazy, noisy, pulsating ride
that presaged a freighted Sunday that
ended in an emotionally charged celebratory evening for the wildly popular
winner.
And when all the sound and fury had
died down, Phil Mickelson had won his
third Green Jacket and the hearts of
even more people. Phil is 39 and has
never been more likable. His game was
never more explosive than it was on
the par 5s where he earned 12 of his 16
strokes under par.
Don’t look now, but Tiger Woods –
still a hero to many, and, yes, a villain to
quite a new few – has won just one more
Green Jacket than Mickelson.
There were inspiring weeks for Tom
Watson, who at 60 opened with a 67,
and for Fred Couples, who at 50 topped
Watson’s 5-under Thursday by a shot
and wound up sixth.
Phil turns 40 in June but is still
possessed of a big, big future. Woods,
who finished T4 in his first start in five
months, was alternately brilliant and
profanely erratic. Afterward, he said
he doesn’t know when or where he will
play next. He is a world-weary 34 and
his immediate future, on and off the golf
course, is uncertain.
