USA TODAY International Edition
Mickelson likes state of his game post- surgery
Phil Mickelson is feeling better these days. Sounding pretty good, too. Two weeks ago, the PGA Tour veteran didn’t know what to expect when he stepped to the first tee in the first round of the CareerBuilder Challenge in the desert of Southern California, his lack of practice and curtailed workout regimen after two sports hernia surgeries late last year leading to the unknown.
It was unusual to hear forever optimistic Mickelson speak in such tones.
Then he started hitting shots and changed his tune. Now, after two impressive starts the last two weeks, the big hitting lefty is expecting big things this week in the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale and then beyond.
He won this event in 1996, 2005 and 2013.
Mickelson said he didn’t expect to reach 100% until this week, “yet my game came around quicker than I thought it would and I felt the best place to sharp- en it and to see where I was at was to play last week and this week.”
He finished in a tie for 21st in the CareerBuilder and tied for 14th in the Farmers Insurance Open, breaking par in six of eight rounds.
“I’m really glad I did ( play), because my touch is starting to come around a little bit,” he said after the Farmers, adding it was a good steppingstone to the rest of the season. “The sensitivity to shot- making, chipping, putting on Tour- caliber greens and rough and things that you can’t replicate at your home course is getting sharper because I did play these last two weeks.”
He’ll play the next three weeks, too, heading to the AT& T Pebble Beach Pro- Am next week and the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club north of Los Angeles the week after that. He hasn’t played at Riviera since 2013.
Mickelson, ranked No. 20 in the world, hasn’t added to his 42 PGA Tour wins since capturing his fifth major title in the 2013 British Open.
At 46, he knows time is not on his side, but he insisted he’s in better shape these days than he was 10 years ago.
And he’s thrilled with the re- sults from his work with swing coach Andrew Getson.
“I am really pleased with the way that I’m swinging the club and I feel really good,” he said. “This is the best I’ve swung in a while, and I’m excited about these upcoming events. And hopefully I’ll put it all together. ...
“Currently I’m probably 75, 80% of where I was before ( the surgeries), and it’s slowly coming back. I’m now six weeks removed, so I should be pretty much 100% here fairly quickly.”