Mickelson wins third Masters championship

Image by Photography by J. Campbell via Flickr

By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 12, 2010

AUGUSTA, GA. -- The ease with which it all came together seemed to be everywhere around Phil Mickelson. The leader board showed he led the Masters by two shots. On the 18th green, he had a putt he's seen and struck countless times before, a little left-to-right breaker for a birdie he didn't need. And in the clubhouse and the locker room at Augusta National, taking off their spikes and moving on, were most of the men -- Tiger Woods among them -- who charged at Mickelson on a sparkling Sunday afternoon, only to fall away.

But when that final putt dropped, and Mickelson pumped his fist in celebration of his third Masters title, the ease of it all melted away. At the side of the green, at a tournament for the first time in nearly a year, was Mickelson's wife, Amy. The hug they exchanged lasted more than half a minute. They have shared such congratulatory moments before, but not under these circumstances.

"It's been an emotional year," Mickelson said.

At the tournament at which Woods made a much-ballyhooed return to golf after a sex scandal crushed his image -- and showed, particularly on Sunday, that he is unlikely to change on the golf course -- Mickelson shot a final-round 67 to beat playing partner Lee Westwood by three shots. He marked the win with the kind of signature shots that usually define the Masters, none better than an iron from the pine straw on the par-5 13th, and became the eighth man to win as many as three Masters.

Those kinds of stats and moments would be how to define Mickelson's Masters victories in 2004 and 2006. But not now. This one will be defined by that hug with Amy at the side of the green, because last year she had breast cancer diagnosed, and Mickelson's life -- in public and private -- has changed since.


He's been through hard times just recently," Westwood said, "and he deserves a break or two."

Westwood, the 36-year-old Englishman, was a worthy adversary, and it would appear that, some day, he'll win one of these things. His finishes in the last three majors: third at the British Open last summer at Turnberry, where he missed the Stewart Cink-Tom Watson playoff by a shot; third behind Y.E. Yang and Woods at the PGA Championship; and second here after a closing 71 in which he didn't do anything terribly wrong.

"I think Phil won that one fair and square," Westwood said.

He also won it at a tournament that, for a time, seemed to be all about Woods, who has not won this tournament since 2005, his longest drought since he turned pro. But he came here in different circumstances, dealing with the fallout from and scrutiny on his own behavior. And though he said it didn't affect his golf, he was erratic Sunday, closing with an all-over-the-place 69 that put him tied for fourth.

"It was a tough day today," Woods said. "Another terrible warmup today. I didn't have it, and it was pretty evident."

Midway through his front side, it seemed entirely preposterous that Woods would even become a factor. His first drive of the day was closer to the ninth fairway than the first, and he opened with a bogey. On the par-5 second, his approach found the front-right bunker, and his bunker shot found . . . well, that same front-right bunker. Like a duffer, he left it in the trap, and when he made bogeys at 4 and 5, he was going in reverse. He stood on the seventh tee seven shots behind Westwood.

But even a rusty Woods can be a compelling Woods, and it's unlikely any other character could be battling his swing as significantly -- yet hole out from the middle of the seventh fairway. Woods responded by raising his arms and tossing his club in disbelief, and when he followed with birdies at the eighth and ninth, he had somehow righted himself and altered the course of his round -- and, potentially, the tournament. He made the turn at 9 under, and was back within reach of the lead, three strokes behind.

"For most of the day, I was four, five, six back, and that's a long way to climb," Woods said. "Made too many mistakes."

Woods has never come from behind to win a major on a Sunday. His drive at the 11th found the trees on the right, and when he took a mighty thwack to try to remove himself, he merely hit another tree, and stayed in the woods. By the time he reached the 13th tee, he looked unhinged. "God! Ti! Ger!" he yelled after his wayward drive on 13, and he began to analyze his swing. The final indignity: A three-putt from six feet on the 14th, a gaffe that, instead of putting him at 10 under, left him at 8 under, essentially done.

So, slowly, as Woods drifted away -- and the questions about when he would play next and what his next move would be followed -- so, too, did other competitors who looked like they might stand up to Mickelson. K.J. Choi, who looked as likely to win as anyone midway through the afternoon, made his first bogey on a birdie hole, the par-5 13th, an inexplicable result in which he roped his second shot through the green, then took four to get down. He followed with a bogey at the 14th, and that put him three behind Mickelson -- who still had birdie holes to play -- and essentially out of it.

The man who made the real charge on the back side was actually Anthony Kim, who began the day seven strokes back of Westwood, the third-round leader, and closed with a 65 that featured a birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie stretch from 13 through 16. But Kim couldn't continue that flurry, and he posted 12-under 276.

It was not nearly good enough. In very atypical Mickelson fashion, he did not even truly threaten to come back to his competitors. He opened with seven straight pars. Even when he hit a wayward tee shot or two, he didn't make a single bogey. And when he looked ready to give back the tournament with a what-is-he-thinking moment, he came through.

On the par-5 13th, Mickelson held a one-shot lead over Choi. He yanked his drive right, into the pine needles. And he decided to rip a 6-iron from 207 yards between some trees..

"The gap, it wasn't huge, but it was big enough for a ball to fit through," Mickelson said.

So he ripped it. And it landed four feet from the pin. He somehow missed the eagle putt, but the tap-in for birdie gave him a two-shot lead.

"It's one of the few shots, really, that only Phil could pull off," said Westwood, who was behind another tree on the same hole. "I think most people would have just chipped that one out. But you know, that's what great players do."

Mickelson is now, without question, a great player -- despite all the majors he has let slip away. Among his contemporaries, only Woods has more than four major championships. And more important: He did it with Amy at the side of the green.

"This has been a very special day and a very special day," Mickelson said. "To have Amy and my kids here, to share it with, I can't put it into words. . . . To be able to share this kind of joy means a lot to us."