Dave Pelz's Pelzmeter gives Mickelson an advantage

Phil Mickelson has an advantage over all players this week. He's got Dave Pelz, the short game guru, who is measuring the speed of the greens with his $150,000 computerized Pelzmeter. It measures the green speed differently than the traditional roll a ball off the "Stimpmeter," which is what the PGA/USGA use. Only Mickelson gets to know the readings from the Pelzmeter (besides Pelz himself, of course). More here.

Butch Harmon: Phil Mickelson will overtake Tiger for No.1

"Tiger's got a big lead as No. 1 in the world, so it'll take a couple of years, but I think he can and I think he will actually (catch Woods)," said Harmon, "He's going to have to really work hard and change a lot more things, but he's willing to do that and wants to do it. He has the desire to try and rival Tiger."

"I would say they're very similar to be honest with you. Both have a tremendous amount of natural talent. They both have unbelievable short games. I think Tiger may be a little better putter under pressure, but Phil's short game around the green is a little bit better than Tiger's. In general, they're similar." (More)

Phil Mickelson, is he one of us?

NYT features a story on Phil titled "Just Like Us." You should go read it.

One interesting passage:

"It is doubtless of small consolation to Mickelson, but the truth is that he is charming and appealing — lovable even — in a way that Woods never will be. And he’s more fun to watch. There’s something a little scary about the ferocity with which Tiger works — the concentration, the determination. He doesn’t need a gallery, you often feel, because his competitive fires are already burning with such intensity. He may not even notice that we’re there — except when some jerk snaps a picture at the wrong moment and then gets the death glance in return.

"Phil, on the other hand, seems to enjoy our presence — to feed on it — and he rewards our attention by being such an open book. You can tell how his round is going just by looking at him — the gleams of pleasure or else the sighs, the little head shakes. Always there’s the thrilling, unspoken question: Is the knucklehead going to emerge?"

What do you think -- is this comparison fair?

Phil Mickelson wins TPC

Phil Mickelson deserves a lot of credit. He didn't wallow in self-pity after losing the U.S. Open on the 72nd hole. He finally took a look at his swing flaws and decided to make a change in hiring Butch Harmon. Well, after only 3 weeks with Butch, there are already signs of improvements with Phil's driving. His swing is a little shorter (although still past parallel), and he seems in better balance.

OK, I'll give Butch Harmon some credit, too. But if I were Butch, Phil would be my No.1 horse right now, not Adam Scott. Butch, though, says Adam's No.1.

TPC, Day 1: Lefty + Sabbatini, -5; Tiger, +3

Did Butch Harmon earn his keep, or what? You know that Butch relishes the opportunity to beat Tiger just as much as Rory Sabbatini apparently does.

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Tiger Woods criticizes No. 17 island TPC hole as "too gimmicky"

Tiger Woods calls the No. 17 island hole a "wonderful" hole, but he thinks it should be switched to hole No. 8. "I've always thought that hole is too gimmicky for the 17th hole of a championship. I think that would be a fantastic eighth hole, but not as the 71st hole of a tournament, or 17th hole of your round."

Phil Mickelson said he loves 17 just where it's at. So does Jack Nicklaus, who said, "I think that's what makes an exciting and great hole -- and I think it is a great hole -- is that it's in a position where it creates controversy. That's the whole idea. You just wonder whether a tournament should be determined by that much of a think at that point in time." (More here)

So who's right, dear readers, Tiger or Phil?

Butch Harmon: Adam Scott, not Phil Mickelson, is his No.1 student, but Phil has "very good" chance of catching Tiger

Butch Harmon may have the biggest ego of any swing coach. He's spoken publicly for the first time about his new pupil Phil Mickelson.

First, he's made clear that Phil Mickelson is not his main horse, Adam Scott is. “I’m not Rick Smith. I’m not going to spend 24/7 time with Phil. When he needs help I’ll be there with him. ...But if you’re asking me who’s at the top of the totem pole, Adam Scott is my main client. And I’ve explained that to Phil.”

But Butch thinks he can get Mickelson to contend with Tiger Woods for the No. 1 ranking in a few years. “The first priority is to get Phil to drive the ball in the fairway more consistently and to control the ball through the air,” Harmon said. “You will definitely see a different-looking swing from Phil Mickelson in Dallas this week. ...It’s going to be very difficult to challenge Tiger Woods this year for No. 1 because Tiger has such a big lead in the points. But Phil has the talent and the desire and he has finally realized that he had to make changes. I think he has a very good chance of catching Tiger in the next couple of years.” (More here)

It's official: Mickelson driven to fears, switches to Harmon

Phil Mickelson has left long time swing coach Rick Smith for Butch Harmon. It all goes back to errant driving. Here's what the Golf Channel reported:

"It wasn't just that one drive on 18," Mickelson said earlier this year. "I missed them through the entire tournament, but that one drive made me look back at the entire tournament to say, 'What's going on here?"' Mickelson said he and Smith were devising a plan to take the left side out of play off the tee, and while he was flawless in winning by five shots at Pebble Beach, his game quickly began to deteriorate at Bay Hill and Doral as he made his way to the Masters."

Phil, you're asking for miracles. Your swing is too long, your equipment is too hot, to give you much control over your driver. Time to start putting 3 drivers in the bag.

Mickelson to hire swing coach Butch Harmon, full-time

Phil Mickelson got a little help from Butch Harmon, Tiger Woods's old swing coach, at the CA Championship. But Lefty downplayed his relationship with Harmon and indicated that Rick Smith was still his coach.

Now, Tim Rosaforte is repoting here that Phil Mickelson will be hiring Harmon full-time. Priority No. 1 curing Phil's driving woes (only 58.8 percent fairways hit). As The Golf Blog reported here, greater focus needs to be given to driving accuracy on the PGA tour.

Hmmm. This is very interesting. Tiger leaves Butch, supposedly in part because Butch can't cure his errant driving (often sliced the right). Now, Mickelson enlists Butch, supposedly in part so Butch can cure his errant driving (often sliced to the left). It's time for the bombers to wake up: there's really no cure for bombers and bad driving. There's an inverse proportion for driving distance over 300 yards and accuracy. I don't care how much you practice. When you are swinging 120 miles per hour and your driver head is 9 degrees or even lower, the chance for an errant drive is pretty high based only on a fraction of mis-timing.

Mickelson selects Masters champion dinner menu -- is it a Tiger trap?

The previous year's winner of the Masters gets the privilege of selecting the menu for the past champions' dinner. In 2005, Mickelson, winner in 2004, selected "lobster ravioli in a tomato cream sauce, Caesar's salad and garlic bread at the champions dinner," according to TGC.

Well, this year, Mickelson has selected a menu that sounds a lot higher in cholesterol and fat content: "southern fried chicken, baby back ribs, beef brisket and smoked sausage. If that's not enough, vanilla ice cream will be served for dessert." (More here)

I hate to be cynical about this selection, but the high red meat content plus the fried chicken can't be all that appealing to the health conscious players like Tiger Woods. I mean, c'mon, who eats "beef brisket" today? Mickelson must know that this meat-heavy menu won't be appealing to Tiger (who has 5% body fat). Tiger's long been on record that he's cut out (or reduced) fried chicken and fatty meats from his diet. Hopefully, they will at least serve salad so Tiger won't go home hungry.

Mickelson now working with Butch Harmon

I just heard Johnny Miller say that Phil Mickelson was working with Butch Harmon this week. Rick Smith is still Phil's coach, but maybe Phil's swing flaws are too much for one coach to handle.

Mickelson defends Tiger's tournament

Phil Mickelson vigorously backed Tiger and Tiger's ability to call his shots on the format of his tournament, even if an "invite only" event.

"I think it's important for the Tour to be in Washington," he said. "I think it's important for the Tour to have a very strong relationship with Tiger, and that tournament does both. And I think that we shouldn't be narrow-sighted on the fact that Tiger creates so much excess revenue for the Tour. All of the excess revenue from the Tour goes to support those tournaments, and most of that money is driven by Tiger. So you're looking at 450 spots that Tiger is creating. If we look at the big picture, he does a heck of a lot more with his tournament, and his involvement, for the game of golf. I think we need to be real careful on that."

Meanwhile, Tiger said that no final decision had been made on the format. More from USAToday.

Phil Mickelson's act of goodness

For some reason, Phil Mickelson seems to draw a lot of negative comments on this blog from some of our readers. But here's one story about Phil that you can't say anything negative about.

Phil volunteered to pay the 4-year college tuition of a total stranger, Holli Dobler, the daughter of former football star Conrad Dobler. Dobler's wife became a quadriplegic after an accident, and most of their money has been spent on her medical bills and rehabilitation. Apparently, Phil heard about the plight of the Doblers and offered to pay for Holli's college tuition -- even though he didn't even know the Dobler family. She's a sophomore at Miami U. in Ohio, current cost at $22,000. (More here)

What a world class gesture on Phil's part.

Phil Mickelson makes a statement: not an idiot any longer

The golfing gods can be cruel. One day you've won two majors in a row and are just about to win your third (with many calling you The Rival to Tiger Woods), the next day, your game is in complete shambles after one of the most embarrassing finishes to the final hole of a major, short of Jean Van de Velde. Last year, who could forget Phil Mickelson summing up his final hole at Winged Foot and the U.S. Open: "I'm such an idiot."

Well, this past weekend, Phil Mickelson moved a long way to exorcising his U.S. Open demons by winning his 30th PGA title at Pebble Beach by a dominating final round performance that left the runner up Keven Sutherland 5 strokes back. And it appears that Mickelson is an idiot no longer, having learned some valuable lessons from his humiliating finish at the U.S. Open. The biggest of all: Phil recognizes that he has a problem with a massive slice on his driver and needs to fix it. That's the same bugaboo that killed Mickelson and Tiger on the final hole of the Ryder Cup when they were paired together -- and Phil's 3-wood left Tiger against the fence with an unplayable lie. Unfortunately, Mickelson ignored his problem back then and it finally caught up with him. Now, Mickelson realizes he can't ignore it any longer.

"I believe I can take what happened at Winged Foot and make it a plus for the rest of my career. I think I'm going to be a better driver of the golf ball for the rest of my career. At least, that's the goal."

What's wrong with Phil Mickelson?

Phil Mickelson reported in this year in the best shape of his life -- OK, well, sort of. An offseason regimen of weightlifting, martial arts, and cardio left Lefty with a self-proclaimed "15 pounds of muscle," somewhere on his body. I've seen some photos, and Phil does look slimmed down from last season.

Well,so far, Phil has started out pretty cold. Today, he shot a 1-over par at the FBR Open at the TPC in Scottsdale, a tourney that Lefty has won several times before and usually eats up. He currently stands in 88th place, and is 8-strokes behind the leader Dudley Hart. It's still early in the tourney and early in the season, but it's not a good start for Phil. Leaderboard