• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact

Carmel Magazine

The Lifestyle Magazine of the Central Coast

  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food & Wine
  • Music
  • Golf
  • Cars
  • Subscribe to Carmel Magazine!

Golf’s Greatest Triumphs

February 1, 2013 by Alan Shipnuck

What was the best round of golf played on the PGA Tour in 2012? You can make a case for Rory McIlroy’s bogeyless 66 on Sunday at the PGA Championship, when he tamed the brutal Ocean Course and won his second major championship by a whopping eight strokes. How about Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey’s closing 60 to win at Sea Island? It’s an easy course, sure, but a 60 is a 60. Special mention must also be made of Brandt Snedeker’s third round 64 at the Tour Championship, which propelled him to an $11 million payday, and Ernie Els’ back-to-the-future 68 in nasty conditions at the British Open, which put so much pressure on Adam Scott he came undone on the closing holes, handing Els a second Claret jug.

Good choices, all, but last year one round towered above all others: Phil Mickelson’s 64 to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. It had all the ingredients for a transcendent moment: The best golf course in the world, a worthy opponent in Tiger Woods, Mickelson’s career-long adversary, and a larger meaning, as the win was the 40th of Mickelson’s career and served as a sort of real-time highlight film in the run-up to his Hall of Fame induction, which came less than three months later.

“Excluding the four major championships he’s won, this has to be the best final round of his career,” said Mickelson’s caddie of two decades, Jim Mackay.

Mickelson was six strokes off the lead of journeyman Charlie Wi at the start of the final round, but the tournament-within-the-tournament was with his playing partner Woods. It was a dream matchup for Mickelson, who in the last five years has learned to elevate his game in the presence of a player who had denied him so many victories around the turn of the century. (In eight of their previous 11 rounds together, Mickelson had posted the lower score, including four in a row on Sundays.) For Woods, competing with Mickelson is like trying to beat an overbearing older brother, and he seemed bothered from the very beginning of the round, missing short putts and hitting loose short-irons on Pebble’s exploitable opening holes. Mickelson, meanwhile, was focused and fired-up, birdying the second, fourth and fifth holes on the strength of gorgeous approach shots. On Pebble’s par-5 sixth hole, Mickelson buried a 25-footer for eagle, taking the lead from a faltering Wi and moving two ahead of a dispirited Woods, who then sulked his way to three consecutive bogeys. Woods at last showed a little fight, by holing out a bunker shot on the 12th hole for a birdie, but Mickelson stepped up and drained a crucial 30-footer for par.

“I just feel very inspired when I play with him,” Mickelson said of Woods. “I love playing with him, and he brings out some of my best golf. I seem more focused.”

Mickelson’s round was a monument to the shorter, tighter, more repeatable swing he’s honed under instructor Butch Harmon. On Sunday, Mickelson hit 13 of 14 fairways and impressed a very discerning audience.

“He was hitting it flush,” said Woods, who shot 75 to fade to 15th place. “…And his wedge game was right on the money.” One of Harmon’s points of emphasis has been to get Mickelson to control, and vary, the spin and trajectories of his approach shots. On the 13th hole, the pin was at the back of a steeply pitched green. After a perfect drive, Mickelson had 140 yards left. That’s a comfortable distance for his pitching wedge, but a towering shot with a lot of backspin would have sucked back to the front of the green. So Mickelson pulled an 8-iron and played a low shot with minimal spin. His ball skittered and trickled to within two feet of the hole for a kick-in birdie. A laser-like approach shot on 14 led to another birdie, and then Mickelson ended any suspense when he brushed in another 30-footer to save par on the 15th hole. His bogeyless 64 gave him four career victories at the Pro-Am, only one behind the record tally of Mark O’Meara.

Mickelson’s success at Pebble Beach has much to do with his comfort level when visiting the area, going back to when he made his pro debut here at the 1992 U.S. Open. An epicurean and an oenophile, he can talk knowledgeably about the local restaurant scene.

He has become good friends with Charles Schwab and is a frequent guest at the billionaire investor’s home on Pebble’s fifth hole. “We talk about everything but golf,” says Schwab. Mickelson has cultivated friendships with a number of Cypress Point members, and in the days before the 2012 tournament, he twice played the famous course, enjoying the fellowship of his hosts and a peaceful place to hone his game.

Mickelson resides in his native San Diego, and his wife Amy and three children almost always come up to Pebble for the weekend, a morale boost for golf’s most high-profile family man. In fact, he credited his latest victory to his college sweetheart. He had gotten off to a slow start in the tournament, and during Mickelson’s second round–which began on the 10th hole at Monterey Peninsula Country Club–he missed a short par putt on the 18th hole. He was, in Amy’s words, “pretty mopey.” Between nines she pulled her hubby aside for a pep talk.

“She said, come on now, cheer up, let’s go make some birdies,” Mickelson said. “It was her bubbly, positive attitude that got me going.”

In cold and windy and rainy conditions, Mickelson played his final nine holes in 29 to get back into the tournament, setting the stage for his epic final round.

In the first blush of victory, Mickelson was asked how he felt. He said, “It feels great, because it’s a special place for me, Pebble Beach.” Even more special now that he has added to the lore of the tournament and burnished his own legend with one more unforgettable round.

The 2013 AT&T National Pro-Am tournament runs February 4-10. For more information, go to www.attpbgolf.com.

Filed Under: Winter 2013 Tagged With: Golf

Primary Sidebar

CURRENT & PAST EDITIONS HERE

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

GUIDETOCARMEL

READ THE GUIDE HERE

Tags

Cars Food & Wine Golf Lifestyle Music Travel

ForAdvertisers

  • ► Publisher’s Note
  • ► Mission Statement
  • ► Ad Rates
  • ► Ad Specs
  • ► Editorial Calendar
  • ► Advertise in Carmel Magazine
  • ► Media Contact
  • ► Full Media Kit

Secondary Sidebar

Archives

  • December 2022
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • March 2022
  • December 2021
  • September 2021
  • June 2021
  • March 2021
  • December 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • February 2020
  • November 2019
  • August 2019
  • May 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • August 2018
  • May 2018
  • February 2018
  • November 2017
  • August 2017
  • May 2017
  • February 2017
  • November 2016
  • August 2016
  • May 2016
  • February 2016
  • November 2015
  • August 2015
  • May 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • August 2014
  • May 2014
  • February 2014
  • November 2013
  • August 2013
  • May 2013
  • February 2013
  • November 2012
  • August 2012
  • May 2012
  • February 2012
  • November 2011
  • August 2011
  • May 2011
  • February 2011
  • November 2010
  • August 2010
  • May 2010
  • February 2010
  • November 2009
  • August 2009
  • May 2009
  • February 2009
  • November 2008
  • August 2008
  • February 2008
  • November 2007
  • August 2007
  • May 2007
  • February 2007
  • November 2006

Footer

Carmel Magazine is the quarterly lifestyle magazine for Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula, featuring the notable people and places, arts, food and wine, destinations, styles and events of Carmel and the Peninsula.

Address:
126 Clocktower Place, Suite 103
Carmel, CA 93923

Phone: (831) 625-9922
Fax: (831) 626-3613

Recent Posts

  • Cocktails for the Centuries
  • Inside Esalen
  • Journey to the Big Screen
  • Golfing in Paradise
  • A Cliffside Home Built for Generations

Search

Tags

Cars Food & Wine Golf Lifestyle Music Travel

Copyright © 2023 Carmel Magazine · Carmel, California · Designed by BEAR★PRESS