Golf World magazine recently came out with its preseason ranking of the top 30 golfers on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods was No. 1, naturally, followed by Ernie Els and Vijay Singh.
Flipping through the names, you suspect there must be some kind of mistake. Where’s Phil Mickelson?
Amazingly, Mickelson didn’t make the cut. The magazine contends the left-hander and his 21 PGA Tour victories don’t measure up to one-time winner John Rollins, who checked in at No. 28.
That may be stretching things a bit, but it does show how far Mickelson fell in 2003. He went from being the No. 2-ranked player in the world to finishing 38th on the PGA Tour money list.
When last seen, Mickelson shot 80-74 to miss the cut in the Chrysler Championship and then lost all five matches he played in the Presidents Cup. His slide was so drastic, he is in danger of losing his title of “best player never to win a major.”
Mickelson is out to pick up the pieces in 2004. He kicked off his year on Wednesday by shooting 68 in the first round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
Mickelson said he is trying to put 2003 behind him. It was a trying year on both personal and playing fronts.
For the first time, Mickelson detailed how the birth of his third child in March nearly ended in tragedy. During the delivery, he said his wife, Amy, needed an emergency procedure to repair a six-inch tear in a major artery. Then his new son, Evan, didn’t breathe for seven minutes after his birth, putting him in serious jeopardy.
Both mother and son are fine now, but the trauma affected Mickelson mentally. On the course, his experiment with swing changes blew up in his face. He hit only 49 percent of fairways off the tee, ranking 189th on tour.
“It was just a hard year all around,” Mickelson said.
Mickelson tried to wipe the slate clean during golf’s brief off-season. He worked out six days a week with a trainer in an effort to shed what he once described as his “subcutaneous fat.” He did look trimmer Wednesday.
During that period, Mickelson also limited his golf to chipping and putting.
“I wanted to forget all the bad swing mechanics that I had incorporated in 2003,” he said.
Mickelson has spent considerable time reworking his swing with coach Rick Smith. Noting that he was “pathetic” from 130 yards in, he also enlisted the aid of short-game guru Dave Pelz.
Mickelson hopes the work will put the bite back in his game. He insists he never lost the fire in 2003, but his poor play certainly suggested otherwise at times.
“I have heard a lot of people question my heart, question my motivation,” Mickelson said. “When I did not win in 1999, I came back strong in 2000 with four wins. I still have the same motivation that has led to 21 tour wins. I expect it to carry through this year too.”
At 33, Mickelson isn’t a kid anymore. He is entering a critical year. He needs to regain his status as one of the game’s elite players. Otherwise, he will find himself ranked behind more players like John Rollins.
Wie thoughts: The Western Open won’t be in position to offer Michelle Wie a sponsor’s exemption this year. The tournament is the same week as the U.S. Women’s Open, for which Wie hopes to qualify.
But Western tournament director John Kaczkowski said he would be open to the possibility, especially after the 14-year-old Wie missed the cut by one shot in the Sony Open.
“You’d have to think about it,” Kaczkowski said. “She accomplished more than Tiger Woods did at that age.”
Wie is a lock to do an encore at next year’s Sony Open. Thanks to Wie, ESPN’s ratings were up 12 percent for the Sony.
Tap-ins: The Champions Tour opens its 2004 season with the MasterCard Championship in Hawaii. Included in the field are Arnold Palmer, who begins his 50th year as a pro, and Jack Nicklaus, who celebrated his 64th birthday Wednesday. . . . New Champions Tour head Rick George said nothing is in the works to bring the 50-and-over set back to the Chicago area for a tournament. “We’re always looking,” he said. . . . Mickelson announced he will donate $100 for every birdie and $500 for every eagle he makes this year to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that pays college tuition for children of military personnel killed in action. . . . Congratulations to colleague Bob Verdi. He won the 2004 PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism. In addition to writing a weekly column for the Tribune, Verdi writes about the game for Golf World and Golf Digest.
