Getty Phil Mickelson booms a tee shot in Las Vegas.
There’s a reason most around the PGA Tour refer to Phil Mickelson as “Phil The Thrill” and it has everything to do with the amazing shots he so routinely attempts and pulls off.
Recently, Mickelson added another one to his resume during the Shriners Hospitals Open for Children over the weekend, and it might just be the best ever. Mickelson, buried in the middle of a huge bush after an errant shot, somehow managed to pull driver out of his bag, take a mighty lash and make contact.
Phil Mickelson’s brain:
Don’t do it.
Don’t do it.
Don’t do it.
Don’t do it.
Don’t do it.
Phil Mickelson: Let’s hit driver.
As the old saying goes, these guys are good. More impressive even than the shot was the fact that Mickelson even had a plan when attempting to launch the ball out of what seemed like a very impossible lie, and the plan actually worked to perfection. Here’s what he said about the play on Twitter, and why driver was actually the right move in the situation.
@Kelbinator27 The reason I hit driver was the depth of the face. With the ball sitting one foot off the ground I was afraid of whiffing it with a shallower face of a 3wood or long iron. I hit it 50 yards from the green in the fairway so it worked out 👍👍
So Mickelson not only planned out the shot, but executed it on the fly. Is there anything he can’t do on the golf course? While Kevin Na was busy walking in putts, all Mickelson was doing was this.
The Flop King
Perhaps the shots that Mickelson is best known for are the ones around the green, called the flop shot. For a long time, Mickelson has been one of the most ingenious wedge players on tour, and is known for his ability to get up and down from anywhere. That’s served him well through the years.
Interestingly enough, though, Mickelson hasn’t always carried the driver in the bag. There’s been times in the past he has elected to carry more wedges to use as weapons around the green or add an extra three wood in order to execute different types of shots off the tee.
Safe to say Mickelson should be glad he had the driver this time around.
A Big Year on the Horizon
Mickelson didn’t get the result he wanted in Las Vegas, finishing in 61st place at 9 under par. Still, count on Lefty to play multiple tournaments in order to stay hot. In 2020, Mickelson will turn 50, but he has proven in the past that age is just a number, and that will be even more the case if he continues to use his imagination in creative ways around the course.
In 2019, Mickelson has endured an up and down year on the course to this point. He won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro Am in February, but struggled in majors with his best finish a T24 in The Open Championship. In order to state a case for the 2020 Ryder Cup squad in just under a year, he will have to play consistently in order to not leave things up to the chance of a captain’s pick. That might be Mickelson’s best chance to crack the roster.
Steve Stricker may be watching, and if he is, he will see that Mickelson still has every shot in the bag, including some that might not even seem possible to the average person.
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