He'd Like to Fatten Up Again

He’d Like to Fatten Up Again

By THOMAS BONK

March 30, 2006 12 AM PT

DULUTH, Ga. — Here’s what was on the menu for Phil Mickelson’s Masters champions dinner a year ago: lobster ravioli, quail on polenta, Caesar salad, garlic bread and vanilla ice cream. For a guy on a diet of winning majors, there’s still a lot on his plate right now.

He couldn’t resist answering a question about how his life has changed since winning the Masters by saying how much he enjoyed the bacon in the champions’ dining room when he was at Augusta National Golf Club on Monday and Tuesday.

“For that bacon, I’d be Atkins the rest of my life,” he said.

Meanwhile, a thick helping of fog poured onto the TPC Sugarloaf course Wednesday morning, which meant that Mickelson’s pro-am round for the BellSouth Classic was cut to nine holes.

And that’s probably just as well because it might have given Mickelson more time to plan next week’s schedule, such as how to tackle Augusta National.

After breakfast, he practiced there Monday and Tuesday, trying to figure out the nuances of the revamped layout that’s 155 yards longer than it was for last year’s Masters.

He knows.

“It’s a shot a day harder.”

The clock is ticking and it is now four days and counting before Masters week begins. That officially signals the start of another chance for Mickelson to show that every time he pulls onto Magnolia Lane he has a good chance to drive out wearing a green jacket.

He turns 36 in June, so Mickelson has plenty of time to win another major, but he has a two-year streak working right now -- the 2004 Masters and the 2005 PGA Championship.

There hasn’t been a better two-year period in his career -- six victories, two major titles, nearly $11.5 million in earnings -- and Mickelson should be showing up at the Masters with his game at full strength again. But that isn’t the case, at least right now, although Mickelson said he figured something out last week at the Players Championship: “It’s coming around. This will be a good barometer to see if I’m improving as I think I am.”

Mickelson has won at least one tournament in each of his previous 13 full years as a pro except in 1999 and 2003. Every other year he won at least once before the Masters, but Mickelson is winless this year with the BellSouth his last chance to change that statistic.

It’s true Mickelson has three top 10s in full-field, stroke-play events, but none since Phoenix the first week of February. At Doral, he started 65-66 and played the weekend one over par. Last week at the Players Championship, Mickelson had one round in the 60s and tied for 14th.

He is 31st in driving distance, averaging just less than 300 yards, but that’s about what he has done the last two years. And while Mickelson ranks 118th in fairways hit, he’s sixth in greens in regulation and a solid 12th in putting. Mickelson is also first in birdie average and seventh in scoring, but he has had his share of problems on the weekends.

Mickelson ranks first in scoring before the cut at 68.33, but he’s 98th in scoring the last two rounds, 72.33.

Those are a lot of numbers to consider, but what does it all mean? Maybe that Mickelson needs to close better and he needs to get over to Augusta as soon as possible.

There is probably only one player who has done better at Augusta National than Mickelson in recent years, and of course, it’s Tiger Woods, a four-time winner. But Mickelson has found his niche at the Masters.

He has the lowest scoring average of anyone who has played at least 50 rounds.

He has had three rounds in the 60s twice.

He holds the record with 25 birdies in one Masters, in 2001. He has seven straight top 10s, including four third-place finishes. He’s second to only Woods in total earnings.

He’s one of only four players to win with a walk-off birdie at the 72nd hole, along with Arnold Palmer in 1960, Sandy Lyle in 1988 and Mark O’Meara in 1998.

So, how is the state of a major championship winner measured? Is Mickelson feeling more pressure because he has won two in the last two years, or no pressure at all because he has relieved himself of that burden?

Mickelson has a quick answer about feeling pressure.

“More so than when I didn’t win in 45 tries? No. But I like the question better now.”