One bad hole dooms Phil
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The hugs with his family took place on the clubhouse lawn, not on the 18th green. That was occupied by Masters winner Bubba Watson, and there was nothing Phil Mickelson could do about it now.
He had celebrated there three times before, most famously when he won his first green jacket in 2004, took his young daughter in his arms and said: ‘‘Daddy won! Can you believe it?’’
Now it looked like he couldn’t believe he had lost.
A fourth green jacket would have put him in the company of Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer. A fifth major championship would have moved him among the likes of Byron Nelson and Seve Ballesteros.
But it all fell apart, in large part, because Phil couldn’t help being Phil. He aimed where other players wouldn’t dare go on the par-3 fourth hole, certain that his calculations were better than theirs. The target wasn’t even the green, but Mickelson was sure he could escape with par from the bunker or anywhere left of there — even the grandstand.
‘‘Tactically, I hit that shot where I had to hit it, which is at the bunker,’’ Mickelson insisted. ‘‘Anything left of the pin is fine, but the right side is almost a sure bogey.’’
Well, almost anything. Mickelson’s shot missed the bunker, careened off a metal railing on the grandstand and ended up in some bushes in a wooded area short and left of the green. He could have taken an unplayable lie, but that would have meant going back to the tee and hitting what would be his third shot, so he tried to improvise.
‘‘Lefty’’ turned righty, and it wasn’t pretty. He turned a wedge around and tried to hack the ball out, but it moved only about a yard. He did it again, pulling it behind the left bunker, then compounded his mistake by chunking his next shot into the bunker.
When it was all over, he had made a 6 for his second triple bogey of the tournament. There was still lots of golf to be played, but the damage had been done.
‘‘If it goes into people and stops right there, no problem,’’ Mickelson said. ‘‘If it goes into the grandstand, no problem. It hit the metal railing and shot in the trees.’’
Take away the fourth hole, and Mickelson played well. Ifs aren’t allowed in golf, but if he had made par on the fourth, he would have been celebrating on the 18th green instead of commiserating with his family outside the clubhouse.
Still, he wasn’t about to admit he was wrong.
‘‘I can’t feel like I lost it,’’ he said. ‘‘But it just didn’t happen for me.’’