Lefty has major chance

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Lefty finally seems to have found the right formula.

After more than a decade defined by near-misses and mental meltdowns, Phil Mickelson is on the brink of a major breakthrough at the 68th Masters.

Exhibiting his new fairway-friendly game and lighthearted demeanor, the 33-year-old posted a second consecutive 69 at Augusta National yesterday, surging to 6 under (210) for the tournament to earn a share of the third-round lead with Chris DiMarco and a date with fate in today’s final pairing.

“For whatever reason, it’s been much more difficult for me to win major championships than regular tour events,” said Mickelson, who has long lived with the moniker of “best player never to win a major” because of a resume that includes 22 PGA Tour victories but no major titles. “That’s starting to change a little bit. … The nice thing is that today, and really the whole year, I’ve been keeping the ball in play. And that’s made the whole game so much easier. The anxiety that I used to feel at a major about whether I would be able to control my driver, hit fairways and score is gone. I’m just so much more relaxed than ever before.”

It’s hard to imagine Mickelson brimming with confidence given his majors history. Perhaps no other player in the game’s storied history has come as close as often without shaking the majors monkey off his back.

For most folks, Australian Greg Norman leaps to mind as the golf’s ultimate majors victim. But even Norman, despite his catalogue of surreal swoons and shocking misfortune, always could console himself with a pair of claret jugs (1986 and 1993 British Opens).

Not so for Mickelson, who this week arrived at his 48th major with his scorecard of futility intact. To his credit, Mickelson rarely has collapsed in spectacular fashion a la the Shark. But his litany of respectable defeats does little to dispel the fact that Lefty came to Augusta National this week undecorated in golf’s coveted quartet despite a logic-mocking 17 top-10 major finishes.

And at no place has that hole in his record looked more glaring than at the Masters, the grand stage that suits his prodigious length and renowned short game more than any other. No player, not even three-time champion Tiger Woods, can match Mickelson’s streak of five straight top-seven finishes at the Masters. And yet last year, Mickelson had to watch as comparably forgettable Canadian Mike Weir became the first left-handed winner in the event’s history.

Weir missed the cut this year. And Tiger (219) isn’t in any position to threaten the leaders after a third-round 75, a fact that Mickelson remarked “doesn’t suck.” In fact, there’s a comfy two-stroke cushion between the leaders and English first-timer Paul Casey. And there’s a three-stroke cushion between the leaders and multiple-major vultures Bernhard Langer and Ernie Els, leaving the green jacket dangling primarily between the day’s final pairing.

“It’s far from a match-play situation, but obviously I’ll have my eye on Phil,” the 35-year-old DiMarco said after a superb 68. “I’m going to be nervous tomorrow, no doubt, but I’ve learned to deal with the pressure better. I’ve won on tour before, and there’s going to be a lot of pressure on Phil out there, too, with him trying to get that monkey off his back.”

To watch or listen to Mickelson, you never would know that millstone existed. He’s finding fairways off the tee like never before since switching to a softer ball and scaling back his swing to produce a high, soft cut. Yesterday he hit 10 fairways, and only one of his misses bounded beyond the light rough. And he converted that premium position into the famed attacking Mickelson approaches, yielding birdies at Nos.3, 7 and 8 en route to a bogey-free round.

But far more impressive than his accuracy off the tee was his attitude, which bears little resemblance to the slump-shouldered, easily rattled Lefty comportment of old. Mickelson rarely stopped smiling during or after yesterday’s round, almost as though he felt victory inevitable.

“I’ve felt more confident this week than ever before,” said Mickelson, who will carry a share of the lead into the final round of a major for the first time this afternoon. “I think that heading into the final round, I’m much more at ease than I have been in the past. … I feel like if I just play the way I’ve been playing and drive it in play, I’ll have my birdie opportunities.”

Mickelson is patient. He’s calm. He’s confident. And he finally seems ready to parlay the awesome talent with which the golf world has been long familiar into a grand conquest.

“I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of trying to break through because it has been so difficult. Things are much more rewarding when they are difficult,” Mickelson said with his patented sheepish smile. “And I do know that if I’m fortunate enough to come through and win that green jacket, you’ll be seeing my dumb mug here every year for the rest of my life.”