13 Feb
Mickelson wins at Pebble Beach
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Neither a six-shot deficit at the start of the final round nor playing alongside Tiger Woods troubled a focused Phil Mickelson.
By Jason O. Watson, US Presswire
Phil Mickelson celebrates after making eagle on the sixth hole during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
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By Jason O. Watson, US Presswire
Phil Mickelson celebrates after making eagle on the sixth hole during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
In the penultimate group, in front of massive galleries tracking the duo around one of golf’s most iconic venues, Mickelson stomped his playing partner and calmly and coolly raced by everyone else to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on a damp, soggy Sunday hard by the Pacific Ocean.
RESULTS: Pebble Beach National Pro-Am leaderboard
PHOTOS: Top pictures from Pebble Beach
BLOG: How Sunday’s final round unfolded
In winning the event for the fourth time, Mickelson fired on all cylinders to shoot a blistering 8-under-par 64 under overcast skies to finish at 17-under 269 to beat overnight leader Charlie Wi by two shots.
“It feels just amazing,” said Mickelson, who also won here in 1998, 2005 and 2007. “I felt my game was right there at the start of the year but I came out and just shot some horrendous scores. … I finally played like I thought I was going to play like this year.”
Mickelson, who didn’t have a 5 on his scorecard and made six birdies and an eagle in his bogey-free round, became the ninth player in history with at least 40 wins on the PGA Tour, breaking his tie with Tom Watson and Cary Middlecoff, who each won 39 times. Mickelson beat Woods by 11 shots in the final round.
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Woods, who started the day in third and was looking to win on Tour for the first time since the 2009 BMW Championship, looked lethargic throughout, didn’t look anything like his old self during a three-hole bogey stretch mid-round, and fell all the way down into a tie for 15th with a 75.
“I didn’t hit it as bad as the score would indicate but I just putted horrible,” said Woods, who missed five putts inside 5 feet and made just two birdies. “Anything I tried to do wasn’t working. As a result, I made too many mistakes on the greens.”
In as many weeks, Wi became the third player looking for his first Tour win to lose a big 54-hole lead. Starting the day three in front, Wi four-putted the first green from 35 feet but fought back to salvage a 72.
Mickelson had been puzzled by a poor start this season in which he missed one cut and finished in ties for 26th and 49th. He was getting so exasperated that he flew in coach Butch Harmon for an emergency session on the range last week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. He kept wondering when his good play away from the PGA Tour would take hold.
He also was looking to end a drought that had stretched to 16 winless Tour starts and a mark of 1-for-36 since his win in the 2010 Masters.
So much for those doubts.
“This has been a really big week for me for a number of reasons, but it does give me a lot of confidence in my game because I’ve known that I’ve been practicing well; that I physically feel terrific, that I’m able to practice hard, work hard and yet when I get off the course, I wasn’t shooting the scores,” said Mickelson, who jumps to No. 11 in the world rankings and has earned a Tour win in each of his last nine seasons, the longest active streak. “You have to perform on the course and I haven’t been doing that, and so it gave me some doubt, and this week erases doubt.”
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/story/2012-02-12/phil-mickelson-crushes-tiger-woods-and-wins-pebble-beach/53063454/1
