Phil Mickelson is hoping a new driver in his bag he calls his X-Hot Phrankenwood can dispel the unaccustomed bout of nerves that have beset him as he prepares to play in his 21st Masters.
The new mystery weapon off the tee he describes as being “like a three-wood on steroids”, only it isn’t a three-wood.
“No, this is my driver. It just looks like a three-wood. It’s a three-wood technology. It’s a larger three-wood, but it’s got a driver shaft in it, and it’s hot like our three-wood. We had to put hot in the name it’s so hot.
“And if you’ve noticed, as I’ve played Doral and I’ve played Houston and I’ve played these last few weeks, I hit it off almost every tee because it’s so easy to hit and it just bores through the air and I don’t have to manipulate it and it just goes so far.”
The jangled nerves, he explained, were due to the fact that he has broken with tradition by not teeing off in competition in the week immediately prior to the Masters.
This, he said, was because the PGA action last week was at San Antonio, Texas, where the windy conditions and tight fairways, he felt, were not conducive to proper preparations for Augusta National.
“I want to play well in this tournament,” he said. “I love this tournament so much and I’m nervous because I haven’t been in competition since the Sunday of the Houston Open, and that has been 10, 11 days as opposed to three, and that’s what I’m nervous about is just those first opening five or six holes, being mentally tuned in.”
Not that 42-year-old Mickelson has any history of struggling at Augusta National, where his record is second only to Tiger Woods among active players with three green jackets in his wardrobe from wins in 2004, 2006 and 2010.
On top of those wins, he has 11 other top-10 finishes, including a tie-for third last year, when he finished two shots out of the playoff between Bubba Watson and Louis Oosthuizen.
This year, Mickelson won at Phoenix early in the season, although he has struggled for form somewhat in the last few weeks, missing the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and sharing 16th at the Houston Open in his last outing.
He then opted not to play at San Antonio and headed up instead to Georgia to reacquaint himself with the special demands of Augusta National.
“I came out here and spent time on and around the greens because that’s so important, and worked on some of the shots that I’ll have to hit on a beautiful practice facility, as well as the golf course,” he said.
Mickelson also had the honor of playing a round with former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who has become one of the first two women members of the previously male-only Augusta National Golf Club.
“I’m a big fan of hers and I’m fortunate to get to know her over the years. She never disappoints. She’s just a really special person,” he said.
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