Nissan At Riviera L.A. Open : The Natural : At 25, Phil Mickelson Has All the Tools and He Is Using Them to Put Together a Big Year

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 22, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

He looks as though he could put a golf ball through a tire hanging from a tree 50 yards away. His swing is so smooth and graceful, they may name a ballet after it. His will to win is stronger than a cavity-backed, perimeter-weighted, titanium club head.

“Phil Mickelson does everything good,” Peter Jacobsen said.

Everything? Wow! It must be pretty wonderful to be Mickelson these days on the PGA Tour, where each time he steps on a golf course, it becomes his own private game preserve, his own city. Welcome to Phil-adelphia.

Mickelson may not own the PGA Tour right now, but the 25-year-old left-hander clearly has the mineral rights. Especially if the mineral is gold. He has made $603,650 playing in only four tournaments, two of which he won.

He won at Tucson, chipping in on the 72nd hole and beating Bob Tway by two shots.

And he won again at Phoenix, when he birdied the first playoff hole, made a 20-footer to save par on the second and birdied the third to beat Justin Leonard.

He nearly won again at La Jolla, but Davis Love III ended Mickelson’s move to win three consecutive tournaments by scoring a two-shot victory in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines. Mickelson finished second.

Until he did it, no one had swept the two Arizona tournaments since Johnny Miller in 1975. No one has won more money on the West Coast part of the schedule. After four weeks, his lead over second-place Jim Furyk on the earnings list is $339,450.

If Mickelson somehow manages to surf his way over sodden Riviera Country Club and win the Nissan Open, which begins today, he’s going to be just short of $825,000 in prize money. And it’s not even March.

“You look at somebody like Phil and you see a natural talent, a natural gift,” Larry Mize said. “I always thought of Phil as sort of a Seve [Ballesteros] type, pulling off a lot of magical shots from just about everywhere.”

Jacobsen said Mickelson clearly belongs in a highly talented group of young players--the birdie generation.

“There are very, very special guys like Justin Leonard, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson,” he said. “These guys at a young age are so mature, so polished.

“I find Phil a real gentleman who looks so unaffected on the outside, but the one thing he has is an incredible fire that burns inside him. He’s just got an intense desire to win.”

Right now, Mickelson’s career total of seven victories makes him the youngest to win that many since Jack Nicklaus, although Nicklaus is far ahead of him. By the time he was 25, Nicklaus had 14 victories, four of them major titles.

Those are missing from Mickelson’s resume, although he came tantalizingly close last year in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

Mickelson was in the hunt until the 16th hole on the last day. Then he made a double bogey and finished fourth while Corey Pavin went on to win.

Prodded not so gently about what happened at Shinnecock in the interview room at Pebble Beach three weeks ago, Mickelson said, gosh, he thought he had played pretty well.

Afterward, he told a PGA Tour official he hoped he had not come down too hard on the reporter who’d asked the question.

Considerate? Of a reporter? Now, Mickelson’s squeaky-clean image is really going to get trashed. It’s probably a natural progression, though, the result of span of 34 months that ended in January in which Mickelson had won only twice.

That can help even out anyone’s attitude, although Mickelson has seemed fairly well balanced from the time he won the U.S. Amateur and three NCAA titles at Arizona State.

Born in San Diego, Mickelson learned to play left-handed by copying his father’s swing from the image in a mirror.

He has learned a lot more since. For instance, when he won at Tucson as an amateur in 1991, he stuck the conquistador-helmet trophy on his head and cut himself. When Mickelson won at Tucson again last year, he didn’t try to put it on again.

Then last month, when he won for a third time, Mickelson did put it on, but only after inspecting it and discovering that someone had lined it with leather so he wouldn’t scrape his noggin again.

Mickelson also has learned to use his head in other ways. He has received more than 100 interview requests since his victory at Phoenix.

Instead of saying yes to everyone, he went out to do what he does best, which is playing golf and putting himself in contention to win tournaments. Someday, perhaps soon, one of them will be a major.

“I would have to give him the nod for having a good chance to win [the Masters] at Augusta, the way he’s playing,” Steve Elkington said.

If the experts are right about Mickelson, that he’s the real deal, then members of his peer group, like Jacobsen, will look like prophets in their glowing praise of his ability to perform feats of magic with a golf club.

Even now, Mickelson belongs in special company, Jacobsen said.

“He seems to know no fear,” Jacobsen said. “After 20 years of playing out here, one thing I’ve learned is that the great players rise beyond fear.

“[Lee] Trevino did, [Tom] Watson, Nicklaus, [Arnold] Palmer, they all did. They just got past fear. That’s why the great players stay on top for so long.

“Phil has got the same quality. He’s just magical around the greens, he hits it a ton and he can putt. Hey, add it up and he’s got it all. He’s got the whole package.”

* RIVIERA MAP: C5

* TEE TIMES: C5

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Riviera at a Glance

TV Schedule

Today: USA Network, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Friday: USA Network, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday: CBS, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Sunday: CBS, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The Schedule

Today: First round of play, 7 a.m.

Friday: Second round, 8 a.m.