Is It Time for Phil Mickelson To Make a Change?

Back in April of 2007, with 30 PGA Tour wins and three major championships under his belt, Phil Mickelson decided to part ways with his long-time swing coach, Rick Smith, whom he replaced with Tiger Woods’ former coach, Butch Harmon.

Since revamping his coaching staff, Mickelson has finished in the top-10 at just two out of his last eight majors and has just four PGA Tour wins over the past two years.

Now, two top-10s at the majors and four wins over a span of two years is a remarkable feat by most player’s standards, however it is underachieving for a man that has spent the majority of his career ranked within the top-five in the world.

Between 2005 and April of 2007, Mickelson won seven times on the PGA Tour, including a win at the 2005 Masters and the 2006 PGA Championship.

Mickelson’s play at the majors was also a lot more consistent between 2005 and early 2007, where he had top-10 finishes in four out of eight majors.

Golfers inevitably go through hot and cold streaks at different points of their career. Mickelson’s breakout years between 2004 and 2006 were clearly the best years of his career thus far.

The past two years on the other hand could definitely be classified as a cold streak, which happens to every player at some time or another.

However, the recent downturn in Michelson’s game appears to coincide almost exactly with the coaching change he made in early 2007. 

After a fairly poor 2008 season, by Mickelson’s standards, he has gotten off to a very slow start in 2009 and has seen himself drop three places in the world golf rankings to fifth, which is the lowest his name has appeared on the list since winning this first Masters back in 2004.

So far in 2009, Mickelson has missed the cut at the FBR Open and finished in a tie for 42nd at the Buick Invitational.

A slow start to the season would normally not be enough to really concern a player of Mickelson’s caliber.  However, what has to be very concerning to Mickelson at the moment is the way his has struggled with every single aspect of his game, and he has done so on two courses, TPC Scottsdale and Torrey Pines, that he knows like the back of his hand.

Mickelson currently ranks 170th on tour in driving accuracy, 147th in greens hit in regulation and 135th in putts per round. Mickelson’s driving and iron play have been erratic to say the least, which is not nearly as surprising as his abysmal short-game play.

Although Mickelson’s ball striking has rarely been as erratic as it has been during his first two events in 2009, he does have a tendency to spray his drives and long irons from time to time.

Mickelson has made an excellent living making up for somewhat erratic ball striking through a short-game that could be considered arguably one of the best of all time. However, so far in 2009, Mickelson’s appears to have lost even his short-game.

Through two events, Mickelson ranks 169th on tour in scrambling and 111th in sand saves, which is by far the most shocking of all his struggles thus far in 2009.

It is tough to know for sure, whether Mickelson’s struggles are stemming from a lack of focus, a lack of practice, coaching issues, a cold stretch in his career, or the combination of all of the above.

Butch Harmon and Dave Pelz are obviously world class coaches. But sometimes even the greatest golf coaches in the world just might not be a good fit for certain players’ games.

Mickelson’s putting stance looks vastly different to how it appeared between 2004-2006.

Mickelson’s hands appear to have slowly but surely moved closer to his body to the point where his hands are now nearly touching his knees, which is something that Dave Peltz, does not and would never teach.

So why have Mickelson’s putting mechanics gotten significantly worse over the past two years? Why has Mickelson, who can be an erratic ball-striker to begin with, gotten more and more erratic over the past two years? 

Last but certainly not least, how in the world could Phil Mickelson have lost his legendary short-game?

These are questions that have fans and analysts scratching their heads and might just have Phil Mickelson questioning the sanity of his decision to make a coaching change during the best years of his career.

After fairly weak seasons in 2007 and 2008 and an absolutely horrific start to the 2009 season, the question has to be asked: is it time for Mickelson to make another coaching change?

Approaching 39 years old, Mickelson does not really have the luxury of taking to much time to ponder this question.