! Scigolf presents Scott Hazledine Answers Your Golfing Questions On Your Golf Game.

Question 430

What is your perspective on Phil Mickelson's win at the Masters?
Note: This question came in for Jack, and I forwarded it to Scott for his take . Jack's answer has also been posted.
Don
From Chuck:
Hi Jack-- I'm interested in your unique perspective on what enabled Phil Mickelson to win the Masters. Here are my guesses--
1. Tamed the fear factor and modified putting stroke to significantly improve putting.

Scott: Phil didn't modify his putting stroke. What he did is go back to his blade putter that he had good memories with, and allows the rotation in his stroke to flourish. Different strokes require different putters if you are not using an optimal motion. Comfort is a huge factor in consistency and confidence.

2. Mastered the power fade for controlled driving.

Scott: This is the single biggest factor for his win. By playing a power fade he posted up much better on his forward leg and released the club with less pronation, much fuller and consistent. His body was more stable and shoulders were squarer though impact with his hands much higher at impact.

3. Impeccable mastery of his wedge distances and knowledge of the course to win with the wedge.

Scott: Phil was able to eliminate 1/2 of the golf course, and many times the 1/2 of the fairway. The distance control is a result of his going back to his strengths. You must manage your weakness and magnify your strengths, unfortunatly people neglect their strengths and try to make weakness strengths. What happens is the strengths you do have drop dramaticallly, and the weakness seldom get better, and not measurable so. You are just chasing your own tail. Moral is spend the majority of time working on your strengths, and manage your weaknesses.

4. Changed course management --- dual strategy= when to be conservative, when to be aggressive vs. old strategy=go for it almost exclusively .

Scott: I don't buy it, the aggressiveness was still there, he was just more committed to his shot.

5. Luck/divine intervention, particularly on the last putt --having President's Cup teammate Chris DeMarco show him the line.

Scott: I've seen many Masters and knew how that putt has to go, so I imagine Phil knew as well. The luck factor is that his speed of putts was such that gravity had a chance to take over. The putt on 12 went in on the side as well as 16, 14 and 18 too.

So in my view (guesses) -- he improved his putting, wedge play, driving and "head", and he didn't have to worry about Tiger, just Ernie Els. Boy, Phil M. played a great, great back nine under pressure. I await your scientific view and thank you in advance for your answer.

Scott: I think Phil wanted to beat Tiger down the stretch and the fact that Ernie played as well as he did was the motivation to play that great back 9.

The SAGE