Mickelson says he’ll attack course in return to Colonial
Six years ago, Phil Mickelson said he likely would never play at Colonial Country Club again after the legendary course made famous by Ben Hogan was redesigned.
Although Mickelson had won twice at Colonial — in 2000 and 2008 — he said the course had become too shotmaker friendly and stifled the power game. With only two par-5s — where Mickelson makes his hay — and tree-lined fairways, the tight course didn’t play to Lefty’s eye and aggressive nature. “It’s all irons, irons, irons,” he said then. Well, he’s back at Colonial for the Dean & DeLuca Invitational in Fort Worth.
“Nothing real specific,” Mickelson said Wednesday when asked why he returned to one of Hogan’s Alleys. “Just, you know, I’m excited to be back here and playing. No real specific reason.”
Mickelson, who missed the cut in his last appearance at Colonial in 2010, began devising his game plan for the course during Wednesday’s pro-am. He remembered much of the layout but still studied each hole.
“It still always kind of surprises me,” said Mickelson, the world No. 21 who hasn’t won since the 2013 British Open and has two top-10 finishes in 11 starts this year. “Like no bunker on 13 caught me off guard. Like, ‘Wow, I thought there was a bunker behind the green.’ Or the bunker on 14 used to be on the right side of the hole and now it’s on the left, and I guess it’s been that way for seven years. I just haven’t picked really up on it.
“So little nuances. I still remember it the way it was before. It’s in great shape; it’s going to be a fun week.”
While his driver will remain in the bag for most holes, Mickelson says attacking the course is a must.
“You have to kind of get after this course and make birdies,” he said. “The greens are beautiful. They’re in perfect shape, and you can make a lot of putts. So to win here you’re going to have to make birdies, but you also have to kind of pick and choose when to get aggressive. ...
“I think if you’re playing well, you can play just about any golf course. The thing about Colonial is that you can’t overpower Colonial. There are only two par-5s. There are no given birdie holes. But you can be rewarded. You can birdie just about every hole if you hit a good shot, so there’s a lot of reward about well-struck shots here. I think that’s my favorite thing about this course is that very rarely is a well-struck shot penalized.”
Chip-in: Defending champion Jordan Spieth, a two-time major winner and world No. 7, is changing putters again.
Spieth put his “old faithful” back in his bag this week — the Scotty Cameron 009. Last week he used a Cameron T5W mallet during the AT&T Byron Nelson and missed the cut. It was his second consecutive missed cut and third in four individual starts.
“I was having a tough time aligning the ball up where I wanted it or getting comfortable with my setup with the 009, and that’s why I made a switch to a putter that kind of lined itself up,” Spieth said.
He lost a bit of feel with the mallet, but it did serve a purpose.
“Now I feel a lot more comfortable with my alignment and feel like I got my setup back to where I want it and I have that feel,” Spieth said. “It’s all been setup related. So I just needed to look at something different.”
Spieth is also comfortable on the greens at Colonial. He has finished in ties for seventh, 14th and second in addition to winning last year. In 16 career rounds, he has broken par 13 times.
“Definitely great vibes here,” he said. “You can use visualization positively as you go in year after year, for sure. I’ve seen it at Augusta (National); I’ve seen it the way we play at (the SBS Tournament of Champions, where he tied for third). Certain courses where we just kind of seem to work our way in contention, no matter how your game is going. So hopefully that’s the case this week, too.”