Poor Phil
You’da thunk Phil lost the U.S. Open again, at least based on the beating he’s taking today on various golf sites. I watched the same golf tournament as everyone else, but I didn’t see the total meltdown that everyone is seeing. Yes, Phil hit a couple of loose shots coming in, and yes that stubbed chip shot on the green was way out of the ordinary, but give Charles Howell III some credit as well. Howell III shot a 65 on a tough golf course, while paired with Phil Mickelson! Howell III put himself in position to win, which is all you can ask of yourself, come Sunday afternoon, only this time he closed the deal. And the stats for Mickelson are a little suprising when you really break them down.
Mickelson is driving the ball more accurate this year (63% vs. 58%), and he’s 8th in overall putting. Actually, that putting stat surprises me because he looks like a train wreck sometimes over anything less than 5 feet. And even more suprising, he’s ranked 127th when scrambling from the rough, and 152nd when scrambling from over 30 yards. Scrambling used to be his bread-and-butter shot and save for Tiger, no one was better than Phil when it came to getting up and down.
However, a real glaring red flag is that Mickelson is ranked 145th when playing the par 3s this year. Ouch. To put that in perspective, he’s a collective 9 over par on par 3s, a collective 3-under on par 4s, and a collective 51-under on par 5s. With Augusta looming on the horizon, he’ll definitely need to fix his par 3 issues or the 12th and 16th holes will eat him up on Sunday at the Masters.