Lefty gets by with a little help from his friends -- wedges
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Five wedges weren't enough.
That's right. The man who is bombing it down the fairways at Colonial Country Club and playing to his strength hit one of those wedges fat on the second hole and, well, put himself in a hole.
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Enter caddie Bones Mackay, who suggested they might need to add a sixth wedge to the bag.
Yes, he was kidding. We think.
Just how many different wedges Phil Mickelson owns, period, is a question for the ages. All we know is he's put five in the bag this week at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, and -- it's working.
Mickelson, who had more air time Saturday than Jim Nantz had words on CBS' telecast, is up by one shot with 18 to play. And that thanks to one of those wedges -- the 64 degree that set up the separation -- an 18-foot birdie on the last hole.
And, no, it wasn't a statement aimed at Rod Pampling and Stephen Ames, who suddenly find themselves one shot back. It was delivering a promise to himself.
"It wasn't a message,'' said Mickelson, who is sitting atop the field at 12-under 198. "It wasn't the relevance of the putt. I don't want to overstate it. The importance of it was that I set a goal to try to shoot 4-under on the backside, and I needed that putt to do it.''
He thought he had it at No. 17, but he came up just short. So it was birdie 18 or go into the final round in a three-way tie and play in the next-to-last group.
The wedge settled it. Or maybe it was the line. He and Bones looked it over, and it just fell in.
Mickelson has never been afraid to mix it up. He put two drivers in the bag in 2006 and won his second Masters. He tinkers with his bag lineup when he needs it, and, here, he decided he needed to play to his short game, which has taken down more courses than we can count.
So, he has wedges of 47, 50, 55, 60 and 64 degrees -- his numbers -- in the bag.
And, he's looking for his second win of the year, not to mention what could be the start of a roll going into next month's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.
"My scoring takes place around the greens, so I want to have as many options as possible to tackle the different lies and the different shots that we encounter in some of these conditions,'' said Mickelson, who has six players within five shots of him.
"When I go play at home, I don't use the 64-degree wedge. I don't use all of the wedges because I don't need them. But out on TOUR, we have such extreme conditions a lot of the time, whether the tough lie around the green, the tight lies that we get, or the rough, the firm greens.''
He's used every wedge every round this week, but another key Saturday was his 9-iron, which got the whole comeback thing started.
After he bogeyed the second hole, Mickelson was four back. The X-wedge -- the 64 degree -- set up a birdie at the sixth hole -- from four feet.
Then, at nine, his 9-iron made that golf ball one-hop and stop a couple of inches from the hole. He tapped that in, made the turn and birdied Nos. 10 and 11, hitting a 9-iron to four feet at No. 10 and a bunker shot to 3 feet at No. 11.
"I fell back behind the leaders, but I was able to have enough holes where I could catch them,'' Mickelson said. "I stood on the ninth tee box, and I saw Rod Pampling was 10 under through 11. And I was 7.
"So if I could birdie the next three holes, 9, 10 and 11, I could be tied for the lead essentially standing on the same tee box where he was. I was able to do that. He made some birdies. But we were at the same spot through 11 holes is the way I had to look at it. ''
Mickelson's wedges had another oops at the 12th when, after driving into the left rough, he hit sand wedge short of the green and then caught a chip thin and flew it 8 feet past the hole and missed the putt. He got one back at 14 with a 9-iron to 10 feet and came out of the rough with his sand wedge at 15 to set up a 4 ½ foot birdie.
The birdie at 18 gave Mickelson separation, but not a second red-plaid Colonial jacket. He's too smart to think that way. After all, he was trailing by six shots at the turn when he won in 2000. And Saturday's scoring average -- 68.962 -- was the lowest recorded since records started being kept in 1983.
"For the most part,'' he said, "it was a day you could go low, and a lot of guys did.''
And Sunday could bring the same hot, barely-breezy oven-like conditions.
"The reality of the situation is these guys are great players, and they are playing very well,'' Mickelson said. "And there is a reason why they are on top of the leaderboard, because they are playing well this week. They're putting well and hitting good shots. For me to come out on top, I have to somehow play better.''
That didn't happen at THE PLAYERS where he started the day five shots behind third-round leader Paul Goydos, but that was in a brutal, body-slamming wind.
Here? Mickelson's the king, a former champion. Pampling lives in the area and has a loyal, rowdy following. But Mickelson? If the crowd didn't have enough reason to flock to the People's Choice, he's also the spokesman for the tournament's title sponsor.
He's playing in the final group, so he's got to be patient. Chances are someone will get off to a fast start, and he'll tee off either tied for the lead or trailing.
"They will birdie the first hole, and very likely birdie the second,'' Mickelson said. "So when I look up at the board, I won't be leading anymore. I have to accept that. ''
He paused.
"And then I've got to follow suit and follow with my own birdies."
Like he did Saturday with a little help from those wedges.
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