How much credit does Butch Harmon deserve for Phil Mickelson's drubbing of Tiger Woods?

Back in June, Butch Harmon opened his big mouth and declared that his new pupil Phil Mickelson will overtake Tiger Woods. That was a month after Phil had won the TPC with a virtuoso performance.

For most of the summer, Phil has been a non-factor because of a wrist injury. But, yesterday, suddenly Phil made the entire year look entirely different, much in the same way his meltdown at Winged Foot did in 2005. Only this time, Phil's late season play has made 2007 look different for his heroics -- not stupidity -- yesterday in defeating the usually unstoppable Tiger Woods in a head-to-head pairing that for most of the round looked one-sided in Phil's favor. Seeing a playing partner of Tiger's beat Tiger on Sunday is very, very rare.

Earlier in the week, Phil said Butch Harmon told him a couple secrets about Tiger's game, so when they played together, Phil would chuckle to himself when he saw Tiger do them on the course. Who knows what Butch said, but it seemed to have worked. Phil played awesome on Sunday. Hiring Butch Harmon was probably the smartest move Phil has made this year. Butch has a big ego (so I hate to give him too much credit), but I think Butch's bravado and big mouth actually can make Mickelson a tougher competitor on the course -- even if he does have man-boobs, as several commenters have duly noted.