Maybe it was for only a minute or for the day. Maybe it was the start of a positive trend.
Whatever the reason, Phil Mickelson appeared to have some of his swagger back on Friday at the Masters.
The 52-year-old, three-time Masters champion had just walked off the 18th green at Augusta National after completing his second round and his mood was considerably bubblier than it had been all week.
Mickelson, who earlier in the week appeared sullen and determined to shy away from any attention, suddenly looked a lot less like the controversial face of LIV Golf, who has been branded a villain by detractors of the Saudi-backed tour, and more like the guy he always has been — a fun-seeker who thrives in the spotlight.
He had just birdied 18 to polish off a 3-under 69, which had him at 4-under for the tournament, eight shots behind leader Brooks Koepka, and Mickelson was feeling good as he delivered this eye-opening message: “I’m going to go on a tear pretty soon. I’m ready to go on a tear.
“You wouldn’t think it [when] you look at the scores [in recent LIV events], but I’ve been playing exactly how I played [Thursday], hitting the ball great, [but] turning 65s, 66s into 71s. I’ve been putting in the work. Even though the scores haven’t shown it, I’m hitting so many good shots, pretty soon I’m going to have a really low one.
“When that happens and it clicks, then the game feels easy again. Then I stop putting pressure on myself, and the scores just start to fall into place.”
This is Mickelson’s 30th Masters. He hasn’t contended on any tour in what feels like forever, his remarkable 2021 PGA Championship victory a speck in the rearview mirror.
His LIV career to date has been forgettable — other than the reported $200 million the Saudis paid him to join the tour. In 10 events, his best finishes are an eighth place and a 17th place. In the three events this season, he finished 27th, 32nd and 41st. Out of 48 players, he ranked 34th in individual points last year and is ranked 42nd this season.
A year after he missed the 2022 Masters, either by his own decision or by an unannounced PGA Tour suspension (no one has said for certain), here Mickelson is tied for 10th entering the completion of second-round play Saturday after the tournament was suspended by dangerous weather Friday afternoon.
It’s almost as if that drive down Magnolia Lane transforms Mickelson into the playful, childlike character he always has been.
When he was asked Friday if being back at Augusta National was “therapeutic,’’ he said, “I would use the word more spiritual.”
Uncharacteristically, Mickelson declined to take part in his usual Masters pre-tournament press conference. And there was a report that Mickelson, usually the life of the party, was unusually quiet during the annual Champions Dinner on Tuesday night.
Mickelson, quite simply, hasn’t looked himself. Surely, part of that is the fact that his poor results on the golf course have sucked the life out of his psyche. Golfers always insist that their golf doesn’t define them, doesn’t affect their mood. But all of us who play the game and care how we perform know that’s a bunch of bull.
So, it was no accident that on Friday, while playing well enough to be relevant again, Mickelson seemed to have a little more bounce in his step, more color in his complexion. At least some of the swagger and needler in him had returned.
“You wouldn’t think that at [age] 52, you’d say, ‘Oh, well, what a great couple of days,’ ” Mickelson said, hinting that he was far from satisfied by merely posting a couple rounds in the red. “[I’m] on the precipice of playing as well as I played 15, 20 years ago, because I’m seeing that when I’m at home, I’m seeing that in practice. I’m just not quite letting it happen when I’m out in the tournaments yet.”
Asked if that “tear” to which he referred can happen in the next two days, Mickelson said, “It’s possible.”
