Phil Mickelson arrived at this week’s 78th Masters mindful of how winning his first Major title a decade ago at Augusta National launched him to four more Major triumphs.
“I can’t believe it has been 10 years. It has gone by so quick,” Mickelson said. “That win 10 years ago, it just propelled me. I knew once I won one, I really felt confident I would win a few, but I needed to get that first one, and that was a big one.”
Mickelson began his career 0-for-46 in Majors, haunted by the recurring question of would he ever win one of golf’s grandest titles.
“It’s 5-for-83 now I think,” Mickelson said, under-guessing his number of career Majors played by two. “It took me a lot longer than I thought it would. It took over 10 years of contending and having an opportunity before I finally won.
“I always believed I would win. I never had a doubt I would win one, but I felt like if I could win one, I would win more and that’s why I felt the pressure to win the first one was so great.”
The 43-year-old American lefthander realised his dream, adding the 2005 PGA Championship, the 2006 and 2010 Masters and last year’s Open Championship at Muirfield to his Major win total.
“When things start going bad and you haven’t won one, it’s hard to get control of your thoughts and start to refocus on what you want your ball to do and your swing to do. It’s too easy to let the bad stay there,” Mickelson said.
“There was a sense of relief 10 years ago because it had been building for a while. There was an amount of pressure that became relief that I won as opposed to joy. Now, when I won the Open last year, I just felt so ecstatic and such great joy to have had that accomplishment and there was really no sense of relief.”
Mickelson will try to complete a career grand slam in June at the US Open, an event where he has a record six runner-up finishes.
After pulling a side muscle last month, Mickelson said he is fit this week but wished he had played better sooner.
“I’m nervous about this week because I always like coming into this week being in contention a few times and having that confidence and experience to build on,” he said. “But I have to give myself a little bit of slack because I have not been 100 per cent. Last week I felt great. I was surprised because I had a pulled muscle in Texas and I felt great all four rounds.
“I had been doing physic ball work and stuff to strengthen my back every morning, every night, for weeks and weeks to make sure that I enter this week feeling good, healthy and I’m able to swing as hard as I want and hit the shots that I need to try and hit.”
Nor does he have to be perfect to win in Augusta, Mickelson added.
“I don’t have to play perfect to play well here, because I can recover from mistakes. You always have a shot. You have a chance to let your short game save it for you.”
