Mickelson Tours With Designated Drivers

AUGUSTA, Ga. —  If one driver is good, then two should be better, right?

That’s what Phil Mickelson is counting on, packing two drivers in his bag to tackle Augusta National Golf Club this Masters week.

Mickelson is using one Callaway driver with a 46-inch shaft for greater distance and to draw the ball. His other driver, also an FT 3 Fusion, is an inch shorter and he uses it to hit a cut shot. Last weekend at the BellSouth, the combination worked well enough that Mickelson shot 28 under par and won by 13 shots.

He said he used the longer driver to fly the ball 315 yards uphill to the green at the 13th hole last week at the BellSouth.

“On this course, I could sure use that extra pop,” he said. “But there are holes like No. 7, you have to have control of your ball. Same on No. 10 and No. 13, you have to control that fade. So that’s where I came up with the two-driver concept. I can hit a little controlled cut on the holes where distance isn’t that big of a factor.”

Mickelson still is considering which other clubs to carry, but he’s certain to include three wedges -- a pitching wedge, a gap wedge and an L wedge, but no sand wedge. He may decide not to carry a three-iron or a four-iron, or possibly a seven- or eight-iron, depending on whether the course remains dry or if there is rain.

And after the totality of his victory last week, Mickelson said his comfort level was elevated.

“Well, a lot more confident than if I had missed the cut,” he said.

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Tiger Woods says he hasn’t played with two drivers in his bag.

“No ... well, one driver was in two pieces.”

Woods is featured in two advertisements in the first seven pages of a recent issue of Forbes magazine. The cover story is about billionaires.

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Mickelson moved ahead of Ernie Els and ranks fourth this week, after his victory last weekend.

In top-10 finishes in major championships since 2000, Woods, Mickelson and Els each have 14, Vijay Singh has 13 and Retief Goosen has nine.

Only two players had top-10 finishes in all four majors last year -- Woods and Singh. Woods won the Masters and the British Open, was second in the U.S. Open and tied for fourth in the PGA Championship. Singh tied for fifth in the Masters and the British Open, tied for sixth in the U.S. Open and tied for 10th in the PGA.

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Chris DiMarco was the 36-hole leader last year in the Masters and lost to Woods in a one-hole playoff. In the last major before that, DiMarco was in a three-way playoff at the PGA Championship and lost to Singh. In the 2004 Masters, DiMarco was the 54-hole co-leader with Mickelson, shot 76 and Mickelson won.

Maybe he’s getting closer, but DiMarco certainly has had his chances to win a major.

“Greg Norman, he should have won it four or five times,” DiMarco observed. “All you can do is try. I can’t control the past.”

Woods said there were several factors at work in DiMarco’s challenges at the majors.

“It depends on the golf courses that Chris plays and the length he hits it,” Woods said. “Chris has been there in a bunch of tournaments and unfortunately the guys have come up with the goods at the wrong time for him.”

DiMarco ranks 142nd in driving distance, averaging 283.5 yards.

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Woods plays the first two rounds with Robert Allenby and U.S. Amateur champion Edoardo Molinari of Italy. Mickelson is paired the first two rounds with Els and Shingo Katayama.

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Byron Nelson, who has made 62 trips to the Masters since his first in 1935, is sitting this one out and resting at his ranch home in Roanoke, Texas.

Nelson turned 94 in February. The Masters champion in 1937 and 1942, he needs assistance to walk, using a walking stick and a motorized carriage. He is also on oxygen about 90% of the time, he said.

“I’m sorry I’m not going to be there, but I have to say, my attendance record there is quite good,” Nelson said.

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He’s 26 and playing in his fifth Masters, but Augusta-born Charles Howell III has no problem recalling the jitters as he stood on the first tee in 2002.

Said Howell: “Parts of my body shook that I didn’t even know could shake.”