Phil Mickelson Comments on New Swing, Career, Tiger Woods, More

Phil Mickelson already has two top-three finishes on the PGA Tour in 2015-16 after having only three such results in the prior two seasons combined.   

Part of the reason the Hall of Famer has turned things around is a new swing, which he spoke about—among other things, including his legendary peer, Tiger Woods—in an extensive interview with Golf.com's Ryan Asselta that ran Tuesday.

Mickelson switched swing coaches, dropping Butch Harmon in November 2015. Harmon coached Woods during his prime, and Mickelson called him "the best instructor the game has probably ever seen." But going to Andrew Getson has made a big difference:

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...Andrew [Getson, Mickelson's new coach] and I have spent the last couple of months really getting the swing point down. And what's happened is now that my swing is on point, all the little feel through impact, the little fade, the little draw, all that is starting to come back. And so I know that my game is back on the right track, and I know that I'm starting to play at a high level again.

[...]

All the details that you look for to make sure that your swing and your game is on, I know are back. I just have to be a little patient with the results, because it has been a couple years since I've played at a high level. So the tendency is to start to force the issue.

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One of the ways Mickelson knew he was on the right track in regard to his swing was the divot pattern, which started looking more like a dollar bill than an inconsistent angular shape through impact.

Speaking of forcing the issue, the 45-year-old may have pressed ever so slightly in his last start at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he'd won four prior times and entered the final round with a two-stroke lead. Missing a short birdie putt on the final green to force a playoff, he wound up finishing second by one stroke to Vaughn Taylor.

Mickelson has to be feeling the heat to complete the career Grand Slam, which he'll have another chance to do at Oakmont Country Club in this year's U.S. Open, an event he's finished second in six times.

Asked why he thinks he can still win the national championship at this advanced stage of his career, Mickelson said, "Because when I play at the level I know I'm capable of, I don't think there's anybody else that can [beat me]."

Even before his recent resurgence, Mickelson told USA Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III he'd be on the 2016 team and spoke in the interview about how he thinks the Americans can better compete with Europe this time around:

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When things start to go wrong, you're there to pull them up and get through it. When you start doing things right, you push each other to achieve even better greatness. And that's an area, because we haven't had the same type of investment in the players -- meaning they haven't had an opportunity to be involved like they have in the Presidents Cup -- we haven't been able to work together in that same unity, per se. We haven't had the same leadership, the same guidance, the same consistency from Ryder Cup to Ryder Cup.

I see that changing in 2016. Doesn't mean we're going to win. What it means is that we're going to start playing our best golf in that event and start bringing our best out in each other and working together as a unit, much like we did in '08, the way Zinger [Paul Azinger] was able to get some of our best golf out of us. I think we're going to start to see that.

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As for the state of the PGA Tour and global golf itself, there are plenty of young guns for Mickelson to contend with, headlined by world No. 1 Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Rickie Fowler. Day is the old man of that clan at 28.

Although Mickelson acknowledged all four of them had "remarkable games" and are "quality people" who represent the game well, he wasn't sure anyone could emulate the impact Woods had at his peak:

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Mentally, short game, or ball striking, I don't think anybody matches [Woods] in any of those areas. And Tiger put them all together in one to create a career that is mind-boggling. 

So it's difficult for me to see the game of golf returning to the level that it was at during his heyday without somebody like that. And as great as the young players are, the level that I've seen out of him, especially when you go back to 2000 at the U.S. Open and his performance when he held all four major championships at once, I think we're decades away from anybody getting back to that level.

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Woods has been struggling with back problems for years, and a return to competition is nowhere in sight at the moment.

Having one single, dominant figure in the game of golf to look up to, the elite 20-somethings in the game today grew up inspired by Woods and were presented with possibilities previously unimaginable. The 2000 U.S. Open that Mickelson spoke of saw Woods blow the field away by 15 strokes.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

McIlroy has won multiple majors in similar fashion, notching his maiden title at the 2011 U.S. Open by eight strokes and claiming the 2012 PGA Championship by a tournament-record eight shots. Day set the major scoring record at last year's PGA Championship on 20 under par.

Emulating the type of consistency Woods showed on the big stage for a calendar year, Fowler finished in the top five of all four 2014 majors but unfortunately couldn't quite break through. And Spieth already has two majors at age 22.

So even if fans aren't as engaged because of Woods' absence, the precocious players who are atop the game today have risen to the occasion and set the table for a decade or more of fabulous golf to come.

For all he has accomplished with 42 PGA Tour wins and five majors, the perspective Mickelson showed in his final quote of the Golf.com interview was excellent:

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If I look back on a 25-year career, having the success on the golf course and having my spouse, Amy, and three kids grow up together in a loving home and become the people they've become, and have a successful family life and a successful career is probably my greatest accomplishment. Obviously, I can't do that without Amy. She's an incredible wife and incredible mother. And I just couldn't do it without her. So I think it's kind of that team that we form to basically travel together. It was very difficult for her, very difficult for both of us, to have the kids out [on Tour] the first 10 years or so. 

Now things are busy, and it's hard to get them out of school. But having that time together and not missing out on so many parts of their life as they were growing up, while still having a successful career that requires me to travel as much as I do, I think that's my greatest accomplishment. And again, I couldn't have done it without Amy.

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How long Mickelson is a factor on the big stage in golf remains to be seen, but it would have been easy to write him off after two down years in his 40s. The younger players who have reached such great heights so early could have easily discouraged Mickelson as he endured his struggles.

It just goes to show how much mental fortitude it takes to play golf at such a high level for as long as Mickelson has.

"Phil The Thrill" appears determined to return among the game's best and show the younger stars he has the experience and game to still be a major contender.