Notwithstanding the seeming cyborgs who totally throw off the curve and ruin the journey for the rest of the mortal universe — Magic Johnson winning NCAA and NBA titles in consecutive years; Boris Becker conquering Wimbledon at 17; Tiger Woods winning the Masters at 21 — most elite athletes are forced to endure a dark and doubting period in their careers.
One day they are known as “great.”
They next day they are known as somewhere distinctly south of great, next door to, “Can’t win the big one,” and just down the road from, “The man even gives other choking dogs a bad name.”
Ten years ago this week, that was Phil Mickelson. He was 0-for-46 in majors. He had 17 top-10 finishes and zero wins. That box was full of thanks-for-coming ribbons. Mickelson admitted only after that period ended that the journey was wearing him down.
Then in 2004, he won the Masters. On a back-nine Sunday in Augusta, which has melted more than a few men, Mickelson became “Ironman.” He birdied five of the final seven holes, including an 18-footer on No. 18, the 72nd hole of the week, to edge Ernie Els by a stroke and win his first green jacket, his first major.
“I jumped so high, I almost hit lightning that day,” Mickelson joked this week.
Maybe they were just the delusions of a middle-aged man, but it felt like it. It’s an understandable emotion and reaction when someone’s career is suddenly redefined.
The Masters begins Thursday, and Mickelson is in a unique position. He owns three green jackets, which is more than anybody else, unless you count two of the seniors hitting ceremonial tee shots, Jack Nicklaus (six) and Arnold Palmer (four), or somebody who is only slightly more upright than the Eisenhower tree (Tiger Woods with four).
Mickelson also won more majors (five) than anybody else who’s expected to make the cut this week (although 64-year-old Tom Watson (eight) would be a nice, even if improbable, story). This can be a week when Mickelson affirms his place in golf history in general and Augusta in particular.
It’s a different Masters field. There is no Woods. There are 24 first-timers. There’s nobody among the 97 entrants who yet projects as golf’s next dominant force. (We made that mistake once with Rory McIlroy. Then he hit a drive to somebody’s back porch on No. 10.)
The past 10 majors have been won by 10 different golfers. The PGA Tour has a number of talented young pros. But there’s a bunch of guys operating at roughly the same altitude. How many people even realize Henrik Stenson is the world’s No. 3-ranked golfer?
The odds of Stenson winning the Masters?
“I saw when I had breakfast: 25 to 1,” he said with mock disappointment.
“In the past, certainly it’s been easy to go to events and look at a guy who is the guy to beat,” said Adam Scott, last year’s Masters’ champion and currently ranked No. 2 in the world. “That scope has kind of broadened now. There’s a lot of guys with the talent and the form (who) aren’t necessarily standing out above others.”
It took 13 years for Mickelson to win a major. He joked this week, “Yeah, now I’m 5-for-83.”
The jokes get better after a few championships.
Ten years later, it’s a different storyline. He’s going against only other golfers, not the skeptics outside the ropes or the voices in his head.
“I can’t believe it’s been 10 years,” Mickelson said. “That win 10 years ago, it just propelled me. I knew once I won one, I really felt confident I would win a few, but I needed to get that first one.
“You want it as a player, as a kid growing up, so bad to win the Masters and to be a part of the history here that sometimes you get in your own way. Sometimes you force things when you shouldn’t. Sometimes your mind goes where it shouldn’t and you start seeing what you don’t want to have happen, and it’s sometimes difficult to control your thoughts. But when you’ve won it, and Bones (caddie Jim Mackay) will say it to me this week, ‘Remember one thing: You’ve already won this thing.’ And it’s a good point. I have won this thing. I know how to win it.”
A few weeks ago, it looked as if Mickelson might not make it here. He was forced to withdraw from the Valero Texas Open because of a pulled oblique muscle, but he came back to finish 12th in last week’s Shell Houston Open in a warm-up for Augusta.
Mickelson has a chance this week because he knows this course as well as anybody.
“The feeling that comes over me as I drive down Magnolia Lane is I don’t have to play perfect to play well here,” he said. “I can recover from mistakes here.”
Careers also can be defined here.
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