Mickelson pleased with Sunday comeback

He knew it was a longshot - making up a seven-shot deficit with just Sunday left at Augusta National. Still, after his stellar play on that final day, Phil Mickelson nearly made it happen.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He had nothing to lose.

Seven shots back with 18 holes to play on Masters Sunday. A glam pairing with the best player in the world. An hour's head start on the leaders. Accessible pins. Not much wind.

Green light.

"From the start you have nothing to lose," Amy Mickelson said. "You can attack."

Throw darts. Let those two Green Jackets in your locker be your guide.

"I thought it would allow him to be athletic and aggressive and not think too much," Amy said.

And that's exactly what Phil Mickelson did. He threw it right in there. Five birdies on the front that pulled him within one shot of the lead. Two more on the back.

Mickelson gave himself a chance. Even when his tee shot found a watery grave at the 12th and he walked away with a double-bogey, he didn't back down. He birdied 13 and 15 and came to 17 and 18 with the slimmest of chances.

It just wasn't enough.

Mickelson closed with a 67 to finish fourth, three shots -- can you say the double-bogey at 12 and the bogey at 18? -- short of that three-man playoff. We won't mention the eagle putt at 15 that would have given him a share of the lead.

"I was looking at that putt (at 15) and I was committed to make a right-edge putt, it was just going to go a little left," he said. "Then I saw Tiger's ball go up there and steer to the right at the hole. I thought, oh, crap, that's not going to go left like I thought, so Bones (caddie Jim Mackay) and I looked at it again and said, well, this could go a little right, and when I got up over it I just made a tentative stroke. I didn't trust my read, I didn't commit to it, I just made a terrible stroke."

A great back nine and we'd be talking 63. The three that's in our minds would be the number of jackets, not number of shots back.


"I didn't know what number it was going to take," Mickelson said. "I just felt like if I could shoot under par on the back nine, that I would have a very good chance to win the tournament."

Like Amy, he saw the pin placements and knew Augusta National was there for the taking.

"I thought there were some pins that you could get to, and if you could get a little bit of momentum, you could make some birdies and I was able to do that on the front nine," Mickelson said.

Mickelson threw out a 30 on the front nine and Tiger Woods scrambled to a 33 to put a spark into Sunday's final round bring Masters Sunday back to life. Can you say frenetic?

Mackay likened the excitement of the day to 2004 when Mickelson birdied the final hole to beat Ernie Els. "It was so loud, I woke up the next day with my ears ringing," he said.

He may again tomorrow.

It was wild and crazy. Mickelson shooting at pins. Tiger making magic with nothing. And when Amy saw the leaders -- eventual champ Angel Cabrera and runners-up Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry -- parred the second hole?

"I thought it might be his day," she said. "No one birdied two and when I saw Phil shooting darts ... I thought 'Oh my goodness, things are falling into place."

They did. And they didn't.

The unbelievable spark Mickelson and Woods threw into Sunday's final round brought Masters Sunday to life. It turned what has been a quiet day into an amazing frenetic afternoon, but Mickelson knows he was this close to another jacket.

He also knows that starting seven shots back was ... well, a long way to go.

"I didn't know what number it was going to take," he said. "I just felt like if I could shoot under par on the back nine that I would have a very good chance to win the tournament. And I felt like I could shoot 3- or 4-under, but I thought anything under par would give me a reasonable chance."

Instead, he shot 1-over on the back.

Mickelson knows the history here -- and not just his -- and Masters Sunday is his favorite day of the year.

"And it doesn't matter if he's one back or six back or whatever," Amy said. "It's his favorite, favorite day of the year."

Augusta seems to feed Mickelson's soul the way it always has with Ben Crenshaw. There's a spiritual component, a deep-down-in-his-heart reverence for the course that Bobby Jones and Alister Mackenzie built. For the clubhouse. For the first major of the year.

"He comes here and it's almost like a religious experience," she said. "He'll go putt alone. Even in the dark sometimes."

He's played in 17 Masters now, including one as an amateur, and he knew coming in he would lose more of these in his career than he would win. He feels blessed that he has a pair of Green Jackets -- 2004 and 2006 -- but knows, like Sunday, a few more of those nine top-seven finishes were could-have-beens.

He finished third in three consecutive years (2001-2003) and another time in 1996. And, consider this: in his last 15 Masters he has missed his only cut and, save a T-27 in 2007, has finished no worse than T-12.

Which is why he and Amy both walked into the clubhouse with smiles on their faces Sunday night.

"He's one of the most resilient people," she said as he headed up the stairs to the Champions Locker room. "And he's like that in all areas of his life. He's just incredibly in the future. He doesn't hang onto things. He's always very positive. The glass is always half full with him… always.

"Every week his goal is to win, no matter what. Even when he's hitting it crooked."

And when he doesn't? He moves on.

So when he came off the course Sunday afternoon and gave her a hug, they didn't talk about what didn't happen, Amy smiled. He referenced the future -- as in the second major of the year, the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, where he finished second to Woods in 2002.

As in his next chance.