Phil Mickelson Is Back<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Phil Mickelson--47-year old superstar and crowd favorite--just got back in the winner's circle minutes ago after a 4.5 year absence. He defeated 24-year\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2018\/03\/phil-mickelson-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Phil Mickelson Is Back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Phil Mickelson--47-year old superstar and crowd favorite--just got back in the winner's circle minutes ago after a 4.5 year absence. 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{"id":4745,"date":"2018-03-04T17:27:23","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T00:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/?p=4745"},"modified":"2018-03-04T17:27:23","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T00:27:23","slug":"phil-mickelson-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2018\/03\/phil-mickelson-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Mickelson Is Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Left-hander Mickelson had been knocking at the door for a triumph in recent weeks. In his last three PGA Tour tournaments until today, he finished 5th, 3rd, and 2nd. Now 1st. What consistency! In his post-round, televised interview minutes ago, he said he expects big things from his game the rest of the year. Phil, you\u2019ve got us convinced. Do it!<\/p>\n

Mickelson and Thomas finished the 72-hole regulation play at 16-under par, 268 totals. In Thomas\u2019 televised interview, he said he was just fortunate to get into a playoff. Indeed he was. He barely made the 36-hole cut to continue the tournament on the weekend. Then yesterday, on Saturday, he broke Jordan Spieth\u2019s course record of 63 shot last year by shooting his own a 62. And today, Thomas shot 64 to get the early clubhouse lead and then wait to see what happened. But it wasn\u2019t easy getting there. On the last hole of regulation play, he holed his second shot for an eagle.<\/p>\n

The one sudden death hole was the 16th, a 160-yard par-three flanked by water on the left side of the green. Plus, the pin location was tucked back left. Some players had been hitting that first shot over the green. Well, Justin played first and joined them. Of course, that was such a miscue. Mickelson then played a smart shot favoring the center of the green and even with the hole. He then had a 16-foot, breaking, birdie putt.<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019 pitch shot was not particularly difficult except for one thing, and it was a big one thing. This Mexico City golf course, Club de Golf Chapultepec, has kikuyu grass. That is \u201cthe mother of all evil grasses\u201d that is ever found on a golf course. I blogged about it the other day when the PGA Tour played at Riviera, in metro L.A.<\/p>\n

Kikuyu grass is a very hardy, warm-weather, drought-resistant turfgrass with a very stiff blade. It was imported to the U.S. in 1918 from its origin in East Africa to help prevent U.S. soil erosion. You don\u2019t see kikuyu grass much in the U.S. except in Southern California. I guess Mexico has its fair share. A lot of American golfers would like to ship kikuyu grass back to Africa! Once it invades a golf course, greenskeepers can\u2019t get rid of it. In some ways it\u2019s great. The ball sits up well when the grass is freshly mowed. The problem is that if you hit a shot the least little bit fat, the ball takes off as if you chunked it an inch or more fat. The result is that the ball goes nowhere. Of course, kikuyu grass just makes the game harder. I think Ben Hogan loved it since he was such a great ball striker and practically owned Riviera.<\/p>\n

So, for Justin Thomas\u2019 second shot from over the green on that playoff hole, he had no choice but to land his pitch shot from about 40 feet in the wide fringe just short of the green and let the ball bounce and roll up to the hole. But that\u2019s the problem with kikuyu grass\u2013the ball doesn\u2019t want to bounce like on normal bent grass. So, Justin\u2019s pitch shot checked-up in the fringe too much, leaving him a nine-foot par putt.<\/p>\n

Mickelson had an opportunity to win the tournament by making his birdie putt from 16-feet. His ball grazed the edge of the cup, slightly rimmed it, and settled right behind the hole about an inch. The ball missed dropping in the hole by a whisker.<\/p>\n

Now, the pressure was on Thomas to hole his nine-foot par putt to extend the playoff another hole. The television announcers were chattering about how much Justin relishes these moments, being such a cool customer under pressure. But I thought made a rather herky-jerky stroke as his ball missed the left side of the cup by about a couple of inches to put Mickelson back with the winners among golf\u2019s elite again.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"