Masters Results 2012: Phil Mickelson Still Plagued by Bad Decision Making

The judgment issues that once upon a time people thought would keep Phil Mickelson from ever winning a major championship showed up and prevented him from winning his fifth major. 

Lefty entered Sunday just one stroke behind Peter Hanson for the lead in the Masters, and after firing a back-nine 30 on Saturday, he was the prohibitive favorite to take home the green jacket. 

He would have, too, were it not for the par-three fourth. On that hole, Mickelson fired his tee shot wildly to the left. Adding insult to injury, the ball bounced off the stands and slid under some thick flora and fauna. 

What came next was the moment that cost Mickelson the tournament.

Not even the ultra-creative Mickelson had a shot at this ball. He should have taken an unplayable lie and the one-stroke penalty that comes with it.

This certainly wasn't an ideal option, as there wasn't a spot where he could have dropped to give him a good shot, but there were plenty of spots to drop where he would have had a much better shot than the one he tried to play. 

Shoot, he could have re-teed and been much better off. In a flash of bravado that reminisced of the old days, he played the ball. 

He had to hit it right handed and just chop at it through the brush. He took a mighty hack at the ball and it went about two feet. 

He was not in much better position than when he began. He took another right-handed hack at the ball. It did not go far, but at least it got him into a better position. Clearly out of his rhythm, he then hit his chip short and it found the bunker. 

An up and down from the sand saved him from carding anything worse than a triple bogey. And it all could have been avoided. If Phil took an unplayable, he would have had an outside shot at a bogey, and an excellent shot at a double. 

This is the way things go for Mickelson, though. He is a gambler because he is skilled enough to pull it off most of the time. 

Who can forget this shot in the 2010 Masters?

Had that ball come up just a bit shorter, it would have nestled into the water and we would have been having this discussion following that tournament. 

While Phil has turned into a much better game manager than he was in his early days, his confidence still leads to some questionable decisions, and Sunday on hole No. 4 at the 2012 Masters was one of his worst.