Phil Mickelson: Bold Predictions for Lefty's Major Chances

Peter Hanson stormed to the top of the Masters leaderboard after shooting a 65 in Round 3 and eight other players remain five shots or less off the lead. The 2012 Masters nonetheless feels like it belongs to Phil Mickelson.

Lefty currently sits one stroke behind Hanson—in excellent position to earn his fourth green jacket. With that in mind, I have two bold predictions for Lefty's Round 4 at Augusta.

Spoiler alert: Lefty fans will like these predictions.

Phil Mickelson will win the 2012 Masters

Here was a fun little stat that appeared on ESPN's SportsCenter this morning: Three of five times Mickelson has entered the final day of play within one stroke of the lead, he has won the tournament.

That's bad news for the other contenders.

Another bad sign for the field is that Mickelson has improved each round, shooting a 68 and 66 after opening the tournament with a 74. On a course that rewards hot streaks, and with a golfer who has the potential to rattle them off, Mickelson has to be the favorite heading into Sunday.

Phil Mickelson will win the 2012 Masters by a large margin

Mickelson's aggressive play is risky, but when it is working it makes him hard to stop. That is particularly true at Augusta, which Hunter Mahan put into perspective while talking about Mickelson's day.

From Christine Brennan of USA TODAY:

"

"I went in, I have not seen Phil (mentioned) all day and there he is on the leaderboard," said Hunter Mahan, who is tied for sixth at 4 under. "I think that's the greatest example of Augusta in purest form right there. You know, birdies 10, and then makes the next birdie on 12 and then eagles 13. That's the back nine at Augusta in a nutshell right there. You can be kind of hanging in there, kind of just 2 under, he's probably at 13th place or whatever, and then all of a sudden has a good stretch there and he's in first. That's very Phil, and that's very Augusta."

"

If Mickelson can go on another streak like the 30 he posted on Saturday's back nine, he very well could run away with this thing. Don't be surprised to see Mickelson get hot late, and if the other contenders can't match it, Mickelson will cruise to the green jacket.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets are growing a playoff beard.