Phil Mickelson Dominates the 2013 Waste Management Phoenix Open

Photo by @pga_tour

From the very start it was all the Phil Mickelson show at the 2013 Waste Management Phoenix Open in Arizona.   Phil’s dominant win wasn’t without its challenges though as was seen Sunday when the lefty veteran knocked his 5-iron shot long and right on the par-3 seventh, ultimately stopping an inch outside the fringe. With that misstep Phil found himself in danger of losing at least a stroke to playing partner Brandt Snedeker, a guy who is no stranger to late comeback wins.

Instead of a chip shot, Mickelson decided to putt through the tall grass.  “Bones,” Phil’s caddie, wisely removed the flagstick so that it wouldn’t deflect the putt and Phil drained it.  It was a classic case of perfect execution of a well thought out plan.

In a post round interview Phil discussed this critical moment stating, ”The challenge of that was to judge the speed where half the putt is through fringe and half is on the green.  I got lucky to have made it, obviously.  I was just trying to two-putt it.  It was going fairly quickly when it got to the hole, probably would have been 6, 8 feet by.  With Brandt in there close, that was a big momentum change.”

Snedeker had some fun with Mickelson for a moment before putting his shot in the hole.  ”Are you kidding me?”  Snedeker said.  ”I fully expected Phil to hit a flop shot from there. He didn’t have much of a putt, and he putted through it.”

Mickelson shot a 4-under 67 to finish at 28-under 256, two strokes off the PGA TOUR record of 254 which was set by Tommy Armour III in the 2003 Texas Open.  He’ll head back to Pebble Beach next week to defend his title at the AT&T National.  With the win, Phil moves to 3^rd in the FedEx Cup standings while tournament runner-up Snedeker moves to number 1.  With the way these two are playing, they’ll definitely be top 5 pick contenders (if Snedeker is in the field) in our Fantasy Golf Predictions segment.

(Cover Photo Credit)