How to copy the Jedi Master of wedge players

What do you do when you’re the instructor for a guy with one of the best short games of all time? Not much. “When it comes to chipping, Phil’s taught me quite a bit,” says Andrew Getson, who has been working with Mickelson since late 2015. “Let me tell you, it’s been a pleasure to have a front-row seat for what he can do around the greens.”

From Mickelson’s signature flop shot— one he hit over his own head has 6.3 million views on YouTube—to sand plays that make the ball dance around the cup, Phil’s short game is “magical,” Getson says. And he’s not just gushing. At the Genesis Open in February, Mickelson holed out three short-game shots . . . in one round. Two events later at the WGC-Mexico Championship, after a re- ally off-line tee shot put him in double-bogey territory, he hit a towering wedge over the trees onto some turf near the green. Then he chipped in for birdie.

“That’s just how good his hands are at controlling the ball. You can’t teach that,” Getson says. “But a lot of what he does is fairly simple to copy. You can learn quite a bit for your own short game.”