Phil Mickelson: Lefty Will Bounce Back to Win PGA Player of the Year
Phil Mickelson won't let his latest collapse keep him down for long, and I expect him to come back with a vengeance to win the PGA Player of the Year award in 2012.
Mickelson shot himself in the foot yet again at a major championship with a triple-bogey on the fourth hole of his final round at Augusta National.
He didn't completely lose it, finishing the round with three birdies and a round of even par, but the damage had already been done and there was no chance for him to come back.
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This latest failure isn't going to stop Mickelson from continuing what will become one of his strongest seasons of his career.
Since starting out the season with a few flops—49th place at the Humana Challenge, cut at the Farmers' Insurance Open and 26th place at the Waste Management Phoenix Open—Mickelson has been churning out round after round of brilliant golf.
His first big splash of the year came on one of golf's grandest stages when he won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am against a loaded field.
Mickelson followed that up with a second-place finish at the Northern Trust open, a couple of pedestrian showings and then a fourth-place finish at the Shell Houston Open before coming within one bad hole of winning the 2012 Masters.
After finishing tied for third place at Augusta, Lefty has now finished in the top five at four tournaments this year.
What I'm driving at here is that Mickelson's game is tight.
Lefty is going to turn 42 in June, but he's playing like a 20-year-old out on the course. You can tell he has gotten serious about his physical fitness, and he looks ready to show us that his best golf is ahead of him.
I have no doubt that Mickelson is going to win a few more tournaments this year, and I expect him to make a strong run at the three remaining majors this year, winning one.
He will finish the season stronger than ever on his way to winning the PGA Player of the Year award.
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