Capelle On Golf

Golf fans made due without Tiger Woods for the sixth consecutive weekend, but the show must go on, and so it did. On the Golf Channel we were treated to reruns of the free spirited Miguel Angel Jimenez’s hole in on one that was instrumental in his victory at the BMW PGA Championship, one of the European Tour’s premiere events. As a reward, Jimenez picked up 64 big points and shot from #41 to #21 in the World Golf Rankings.

Back home in America Phil Mickelson set out on Sunday to maintain his one shot 54 hole lead over Stephen Ames and Rod Pampling at the venerable Colonial C.C., site of the Crowne Plaza Invitational. Enter the ghost of Tiger. You know what he does in these situations – he wins. Could Mickelson acquit himself with Tigeresque aplomb? That was the question of the day.

For a long time it looked like Mickelson was going to let this one slip from his grasp. After ten holes he was a disappointing even par for the day on course that was bleeding red numbers. He trailed playing partner Rodney Pampling, who birdied three of the last four holes on the front nine, by two shots.

Enough already Mickelson must have thought. Tiger’s not the only one who can close the deal. On the 611 yard par 5 eleventh, Mickelson hammered his tee shot a run aided 340 yard down the right side of the fairway. Then he launched a 265 yard 4-iron (are these distances for real?) onto the center of the green, setting up a two-putt birdie. The shorter hitting Pampling settled for a routine par. The deficit was cut to a shot.

They matched pars on the next three holes, so Mickelson still trailed by a shot when he prepared to putt from off the back edge of the fifteenth green. His first putt was a good 80 feet from the cup and he rolled it a dozen feet past the cup. Miss this one and he’s two down with three to play. But he rolled it home in the truest tradition of our absent master to remain one back.

On the par 3 sixteenth an announcer gave Pampling a 2 in 10 chance of getting down in two from a downhill lie in a bunker, but darned if he didn’t, holing a clutch ten footer for par to preserve his one shot lead. After Mickelson laced a long iron into perfect position on the short and tight par 4 seventeenth, Pampling must have thought he was playing Tiger because he does what Tiger’s opponents do so well – he choked. He pushed his long iron shot into a yard wide drainage ditch. It took the best bunker shot in the history of golf for him to salvage a bogey. Seriously folks, it was that good. Mickelson, Pampling, and Tim Clark, who was playing in the group ahead and had birdied 16 and 17, were now tied at -13.

Mickelson, for reasons known only to him, did a Winged Foot by slicing his drive into the trees to the left. He looked dead. Pampling responded with a fairway splitter. Advantage Rodney, or so it seemed. Time for Tiger/Phil to rise to the occasion. From 142 yards Mickelson lofted a wedge under one tree and over another. The ball barley carried the front bunker before rolling to a stop nine feet to the right of the cup.

Pampling’s second left him about 40 feet short, and he putted to within four feet, setting the stage for Mickelson. Phil buried the winning putt in the heart of the cup. Then he did a curious thing – he pumped his fist several times, adopted a weak Tiger scowl, and looked downward before morphing into the more customary posture of smiling Phil.

On the back nine Mickelson did not play his best golf, but he played great golf, if that makes sense. He played like a winner and he played winning golf, the kind Tiger does, and the kind you would expect from the world’s second ranked player.

As for is game, all parts are in good working order. He tied for fifth in GIR and was fifth in driving distance. He missed twenty greens, but made only six bogeys, indicating that his vaunted short game is sharp. And, most importantly, a new putter restored his confidence on the greens.

As Mickelson left town with his 34th PGA Tour victory in tow, he had every reason to believe that it’s time to end his long standing US Open jinx. And what better place than in front of his hometown fans at San Diego’s Torrey Pines.