Phil Mickelson settled for completing a career second-place slam with his runner-up effort at the Masters, but the five-time major champion’s confidence is high as he seeks the real grand slam.
The 44-year-old American left-hander, who had managed only one top-10 in his past 31 starts, fired a three-under par 69 in the final round, matching England’s Justin Rose for second on 14-under 274.
“I plan on taking the next couple of weeks to work on my game and get it sharp and hopefully use this as a springboard for the rest of the year because I feel like my game has really come around," said Mickelson.
It was Mickelson’s 10th runner-up finish in a major, but his first at Masters. His other career major runner-up efforts include two in PGA Championships, one at the 2011 Open Championship and a record six at the US Open.
But Mickelson, winner of five majors, is already preparing for his second run at the career grand slam in June at the US Open in Chambers Bay.
“I’ll spend a little bit of time at Chambers Bay,” Mickelson said. “But really, I think that when I played well and won at Muirfield in 2013, I really didn’t spend an inordinate amount of time on the golf course. I just got my game sharp, and I think I will probably take that approach more with Chambers Bay.
“My tactic the last two weeks heading into here was try to make a lot of birdies because I knew that I had to come out here and make a lot of birdies, fire at pins, get good distance control, short game is sharp and make putts.
“But heading into the US Open, I’ll have a different tactic. I’ll try to play more of a controlled style game, getting the ball in play, getting short game sharp and trying to play more of a strategic style.”
On his game peaking in the majors, Mickelson said: “I don’t have probably a great explanation other than I really focus on those events. I really work for them with the idea that these are the events that I’m trying to play well in now.”
After finishing second at last year’s PGA Championship, it is the first time in his career Mickelson has had back-to-back second places.
