Phil Mickelson Will Rebound After Terrible Masters

Phil Mickelson is out of of contention at the 2013 Masters, but don't count him out for the rest of the year. Lefty is going to be just fine. 

There is still a round left to be played at the Masters, but Phil isn't going to win. In fact, he isn't even going to be close. After the completion of the third round, Phil is 15 strokes behind co-leaders Brandt Snedeker and Angel Cabrera. 

Mickelson is at eight-over for the tournament, which leaves him well off the pace of getting anywhere on this leaderboard:

While inconsistency has plagued Phil throughout his storied career, for the most part he's been able to avoid it at Augusta. 

He's won three of his four majors here, and he's been in contention numerous times—like he was in his third-place finish last year. In fact, his worst Masters finishing position came in his first Augusta appearance, when he tied for 46th.

He is currently tied for 56th. 

Given that he's fired two of his worst three Masters rounds ever in the last two rounds—a 76 on Friday and a 77 on Saturday—there is no reason to think he will improve his positioning. 

At the root of the problem is Mickelson's ball striking. He's been erratic all tournament. He's put himself in bad positions off the tee, and he hasn't been able to place the ball in the right spots on the green. 

Mickelson is embroiled in a slump—but this is nothing new for Lefty. Consider that last year, Mickelson withdrew after a 79 in the opening round of the Memorial Tournament in early June. 

His next time out, following the withdrawal, he finished in 65th at the U.S. Open and then missed the cut in his next two PGA events. 

Less than two months after that second missed cut, Phil finished fourth at the Deutsche Bank Championship. He followed that up by finishing second in two of his last three events of the year. 

As he did last year and in years previous, he will rebound from this poor performance. 

Mickelson has been up and down this year, but he's clearly shown he is still capable of dominating. He won in Phoenix earlier this year when he flirted with a 59. 

Mickelson is far too talented and too natural a ball striker for these problems to follow him for long.