Battle of lefties brewing
By KEN FIDLIN -- Toronto Sun
It's a story that probably has been repeated enough already but it's so vindictively delicious it never really gets old.
It's Tuesday before last year's Masters in Augusta, and Phil Mickelson was asked who he thought the next lefty to win a major championship would be.
"I think we all know the answer to that," he sniffed imperiously.
Six days later, Canadian Mike Weir was wearing the green jacket. Say, and correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Weir a lefty, too?
And then there's the matter of the Presidents Cup, where Jack Nicklaus got into a bad habit of sending Mickelson out against Weir until, after three defeats, it dawned on him this might not be a great idea.
It all goes back a lot further than that.
At the 2000 Presidents Cup, the legend is that Mickelson, in a tiny moment of gamesmanship, scrunched up a potato chip bag right in the middle of Weir's backswing, a breach of conduct Weir never has forgotten or forgiven.
Which brings us to Phoenix where Mickelson, at the dawn of the 2004 PGA Tour season, is threatening to jump out of the gate the same way Weir did last year. Mickelson won the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic last weekend and is sitting pretty after two rounds this week at the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Nobody should be surprised Weir also has himself decently placed heading into the weekend.
The bigger surprise was how he could hit the golf ball so purely last weekend and manage to finish 41st.
The key to Weir's success on the PGA Tour always has been his play around the greens -- short chips, sand shots and putting. It was all there last week -- including all his long clubs -- except for the putter, which went missing.
"I'm frustrated, but I'm not concerned," Weir said at the end of that five-round irritation.
"When I'm putting well, I make almost everything from inside 10 feet and throw in a couple of long ones. I just wasn't making anything all week."
A year ago, when the Hope and the Phoenix tournaments were flip-flopped, Weir had a similar experience at Phoenix, then went to Palm Springs the next week and won.
At the Hope this year, the hole looked about the size of a thimble to Weir. This week, it's different.
After two rounds, he has made virtually everything inside 10 feet, a few from inside 15 feet and a couple more from another area code on his way to rounds of 65 and 69. That is more like the game that won Weir the Masters last season.
So now, the Bright's Grove native is set up in the lead pack heading into the weekend, just two shots off Mickelson's lead. Scott Verplank, Jonathan Kaye and a handful of others are in there, too.
But the name that will be on everyone's lips this weekend will be Mickelson's.
His two rounds in Phoenix, 64 and 68, give him seven rounds in the 60s so far this season (68 is his worst score of the year) and that's a far cry from the ragged game that plagued him in 2003.
That suits Phoenix and its haywire golf fans just fine, since Phil, as an Arizona State alumnus and long-time resident, is considered a local. Mickelson always has been a crowd favourite at this event where the galleries act and sound more like a rasslin' crowd.
This is the birthplace of "You Da Man!" shouted just a millisecond before the club makes contact with the ball.
"Hopefully I'll play well (today) because there's no better feeling than being in contention on Sunday coming down the stretch," said Mickelson, who fed off the galleries to win here in 1996.
Meanwhile, lurking in the weeds will be Weir.
Think he might be looking forward to a head-to-head with his favourite left-handed punching bag, in Mickelson's own back yard?
I think we all know the answer to that.
