Philly Mick: Is He Finally Waking Up?

That's a question I have been asking myself for a few weeks now, and am asking myself even more since Mickelson's win at the Players. Is he back and will he continue to play good golf from now on, or is this
simply the latest peak in the sine wave of his golfing career?

He's played this well before people. He played this well at the 2004 Masters, slowly reverted back to his old self for a while, got it together again for the 2005 PGA, and managed to keep it going until shortly after the 2006 Masters. Everyone likes to talk about Winged Foot, but for anyone who was following Phil at the time, we knew he was lucky to be where he was on the final day of the 2006 U.S. Open. He was playing that tournament as a schizophrenic, caught between playing "smart golf" and "Mickelson golf". His raw talent got him to the position he was in on the final hole, but he didn't deserve to win that week.

His new fitness regime has gotten me inspired that maybe he's really trying to turn it around for the long-term this time. Before he seems to have just been trying to put on a band-aid at the beginning of each season, doing the things he thought he needed to do to compete in the majors, but not really buying into the philosophy for the long term. Now he's hired a fitness guy and switched swing coaches. Does that indicate he's ready to make that long-term change everyone has been waiting for?

If that is an indication, and he does make the change, then Winged Foot was good for him in the long run. Maybe it taught him a lesson that you can't just slap on a girdle and expect it to get you through to August
and then take it off and let out your gut until next year.

I am a big fan of Phil's. I have followed his career from almost the beginning, and for that reason, unfortunately, I have to say I'll believe it when I see it.