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Still waiting Mickelson feels he has 'good shot' at first major
DULUTH, Ga. (Reuters) -- Phil Mickelson does not seem burdened by the pressure to win his first major. Instead, the world No. 2 sounds like a man poised to break through when the U.S. PGA Championship gets underway on Thursday. The smooth-swinging left-hander has been concentrating on positive thinking and "minimizing his misses" in the hopes of eliminating the kind of mistakes that have cost him major championship titles in the past. "I've been playing well. I'd like to think that I have a good shot at it," Mickelson said on Tuesday about his chances in the final major championship of the 2001 season. "The U.S. Open and British Open and the Masters should be the easiest tournaments for me to win because my misses have been minimized and the penalties for missed shots are so severe it should make it more difficult for the other players and it should allow me to excel or come out on top. "I've worked very hard this year, especially in the last few weeks with Rick [coach Smith] on making some refinements and I've been able to minimize my misses even more so, and I feel as though this golf course is set up for me to take advantage of that." Mickelson, who threatened this year at both the Masters and U.S. Open, feels at home on the Georgia courses that feature bentgrass greens and Bermuda rough, to which he grew accustomed rowing up in California. He has had success in the past in the Atlanta area, winning both the BellSouth Classic at the TPC at Sugarloaf and the Tour Championship at East Lake last year. Mickelson, who was a member of the U.S. team that lost the 1989 Walker Cup at Peachtree Country Club, in the 1980s was a three-time champion at a U.S. junior golf event in nearby Roswell. "I feel as though I've played well this year, and I feel as though this golf course is a course that I feel comfortable on," he said. "The fairways and the rough are what I grew up on in Southern California, and the greens are big, sloping, easy to read bentgrass greens, so I have tended to putt them very well in the past." The length of the Highlands Course, playing at a massive 7,213 yards for a par-70, the rain-softened fairways and greens and his comfort level in chipping out of the familiar Bermuda rough around the greens, would allow him to play aggressively. Mickelson said that, despite all his success in the past -- including 18 PGA Tour victories -- he understood that great players were measured by their performance in the majors. "It would mean a lot to finally break through and win a major, just to prove to myself tht it can be done and that all of the hard work that I have put into my game in trying to refine it and minimize the misses and play smarter on difficult tests is paying off." Mickelson said he was even comfortable with the tag of "best player never to have won a major" -- a dubious honor that has rankled many a player in the past. "I don't see anything negative about it," Mickelson said. "I think it's a very complimentary label. "What I would see as being a negative is having not won a major and not even being included among the best players to have not won a major. That is basically saying, 'Gosh, you may never do it.' "But I'm hoping that me being on that list will be short-lived."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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