Mickelson arrives at that special Masters age

Phil Mickelson cracks a joke to the gallery around the fourth tee during his Tuesday practice round for the Masters. (Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com)

Credit: Curtis Compton

Credit: Curtis Compton

Phil Mickelson cracks a joke to the gallery around the fourth tee during his Tuesday practice round for the Masters. (Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com)

At 15, Phil Mickelson was a distant witness to a Masters for the Ages. Also known as the Masters of the Aged.

Back West, the teen Lefty excitedly recorded the exploits of some codger named Nicklaus in 1986. “Yes, sir!” the 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus had done it, becoming the oldest Masters champion ever.

“I VCRed it. Many don’t even know what that was, but I taped it,” Mickelson joked to the media Tuesday. “And I watched it over and over and just marveled at what it was. It was just incredible. It was one of the greatest moments in the history of the game.”

Well, where did the time go? Now here is Mickelson today, the one bearing all the trademarks of a venerated elder. He invokes outdated technologies. He possesses more Masters titles (three) than anyone in the field. He is the master with his own young apprentice here, 22-year-old Jon Rahm, who like Mickelson is an Arizona State man.

And, he certainly has the mileage. Mickelson is seven months north of where Nicklaus was at this point in ’86 and so must face the same kind of skepticism.

Is he still relevant as a tournament contender, or has he begun the difficult transition to ceremonial golfer? More than anyone since 1986, Mickelson would seem the player most capable of bettering that one footnote to the grand history that Nicklaus composed. But does he have one more great week in him?

“I would say that Phil has a lot better chance of winning this year than I did when I was 46,” Nicklaus said.

“I don’t think he’s probably playing his best golf right now, but sometimes that changes very quickly,” said the man whose age record has survived more than three decades. “Honestly, age is not an issue to him. He’s a big guy, and he’s a long guy, and he’s got a great short game. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find him in contention.”

Questions of age draw vague answers from Mickelson. For one, you get the sense that when Mickelson is 60, he’ll still be coming here talking about how Augusta National is his favorite place in the world and how it always draws the best from him.

His version of that refrain Tuesday: “This course allows me the opportunity to not be perfect and still shoot a good number and compete, which is why I expect to do well here every year.”

It’s as if age is not even a number to the guy. But we are compelled to point out that as of Tuesday, he was at 46 years, nine months, 19 days and counting.

“I don’t think much about age right now,” he said. “I think that guys’ careers are being extended a lot longer because of the way fitness has taken over. It’s not like I’m a pillar of fitness, but I spend a decent enough time (working out) to be able to physically perform and practice and play the way I’d like to play.”

Invoking the example of Bernhard Langer, then 58, playing in the penultimate pairing last year, Mickelson said, “I don’t feel as though age is as big a factor as it was decades ago. I feel like the generation that are playing the game now are going to have elongated careers due to fitness.”

Just a couple of mitigating facts, however, because old guys lose track of things sometimes.

While Mickelson staged a spectacular duel with Henrik Stenson in last year’s British Open, he has not actually won anything since that same tournament in 2013.

This is Mickelson’s 25th Masters, a silver anniversary of an event in which he has so many strong finishes — second once, third five times, along with the three victories. But, also, two of his three career missed cuts have come in the past three years.

He is coming off a pair of hernia surgeries at the end of 2016, which interrupted repairs on his game. In the seven stroke-play events Mickelson has played before the Masters, he has one top-10 finish (average finish over that stretch — 30th).

But, he said, “I think the last year and a half, I’ve worked really hard to get my game back to the level that I expect and the level that I’ve strived for. If I can play anywhere close to the way I played at the British Open last year and the Ryder Cup, I should be able to give myself a good opportunity for Sunday.”

And, yes, this increasingly is a young man’s world. Of the 13 PGA Tour events this calendar year, five have been won by players 25 and younger. Nine of those by players under 30.

Ah, but this can be an older man’s tournament.

It is no surprise that the more the years have passed, the more Mickelson has preached the value of experience around Augusta National.

So, he takes the weather forecast that calls for gusty weather in the first two rounds and hears: “Advantage, me.”

“I like the fact that the weather is coming in because that will make the misses much bigger for everybody. And if you continue to miss in the wrong spot and it gets worse, you’re going to make a lot of bogeys, doubles or worse. And that’s something that I’m going to try to use my knowledge and skill to try to avoid,” he said.

That’s the short term. For the longer run, Mickelson, while in no danger of cutting a workout video, trains enough to keep himself in playing trim. He watches his sugar intake, as that above all else seems to inflame his psoriatic arthritis. And does not allow himself to get caught up in being a symbol of the athlete waging war on the passing years.

A number he’d more likely invoke than 46 is 18. That’s Mickelson’s current world ranking. Not the ranking of a coot. By way of comparison, Nicklaus was No. 33 in the world just before he won the ’86 Masters.

But whether Mickelson dwells on it, 46 does have a magical ring to it at this place. It calls up maybe the best Masters memory ever — and lends perspective to everything Mickelson does in this Masters and beyond.