Phil up for the Masters

CAN this finally be the year Phil Mickelson overcomes his demons and wins a major championship?

He's been trying to do since arriving at Augusta in 1991 as an amateur with the plaudits ringing in his ears and the world at his feet.

In many ways, he has got it just right, 22 wins on the US Tour, untold riches, a beautiful family and a sensational home in California known as Rancho Sante Fe.

And yet, at 33, he remains unfulfilled because there's no major trophy on that otherwise overladen sideboard after 46 attempts.

Near misses abound. Payne Stewart pipped him in the US Open at Pinehurst in 1998, David Toms holed in one on the last day of the 2001 US PGA in Atlanta and got home by a shot.

There were times when he was beaten by the inspired finish of an opponent. There were others when he imploded at the crucial moment.

You would think Augusta National, with its minimal rough and wide fairways, its brutally contoured and speedy greens, would be suited to his often wayward long game and much envied gift for chipping and putting. And yet he's never even been in a play-off here. The best he can offer is a quartet of third place finishes, in 1996 and again in 2001 and the past two visits. He even missed the cut in '97 and overall has 17 top ten finishes in the majors.

So it must border on the ridiculous for anybody to suggest he can do it now.

And, yet, how can you deny the talent of the man. Or the fact that he has started the 2004 campaign in such impressive fashion having overcome a traumatic 12 months at home and on the golf course.

He showed his intent by undertaking a rigorous personal regime, losing more than a stone in weight. He then captured the Bob Hope Classic in his first outing and has since been 7th, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 24th, 3rd and 10th.

He himself talks a great game even though you wish he would discard the word "if" from his vocabulary.

"What I have found over the last three years is that if I could have saved a shot a round, I would have had two wins and a tie," he muses.

"So I spent Monday and Tuesday with Dave Pelz (the putting guru) and Rick Smith (swing coach) to see where I could just save half a shot per round. I'm trying to take the experience I've had in the last 11 years, knowing how the course plays, the pin placements, fairways cut very tight around the greens, putting the ball in the right spot and maybe getting a little better touch or feel on certain shots just to see if I can get that one extra shot a round."

There's that word "if" again. He talks bravely about his high level of confidence and how: "I'm playing well enough to get into contention without having to do anything extraordinary."

The trouble is, we've heard all this kind of stuff before. It's way past the time for delivering and, in fairness, he seems to accept that fact.

"I feel I certainly have a chance because I've played well, week-in, week-out," he says.

"I'm driving the ball. Even though the percentage is up 12, maybe 13%, it feels more than that. When I miss the fairways, I'm much more in play. Secondly, when I do miss a fairway, I now have the confidence that from 150 yards I can salvage par or get it back with a birdie at the next."

And on and on he goes, daydreaming about winning the Masters.

"For me to feel good about my career, for me to be 55, 60, coming back to this place. I need to win it.

"If I'm able to win it, I want to come back every year and soak it all in, play practice rounds and just be a part of the tournament. So although nothing is really life and death, unless you're facing a serious illness (as his wife and child did) or such, it certainly would mean a lot me, yeah, to win."

Not even his greatest rivals would begrudge him that long overdue success which doesn't mean, of course, that they won't do all in their power to claim the green jacket for themselves. Chief among the most likely aspirants is another left-hander, the less glamorous but highly effective Canadian Mike Weir, winner in a sudden-death play-off against Lenny Mattiace 12 months ago.

Several other names spring to mind, notably Vijay Singh and Ernie Els, winner and runner-up in 2000; TPC winner Adam Scott and, Tiger Woods!

Few in this field can match Woods' Masters record three wins and two other top ten finishes since he first competed here in 1995 as an amateur.

They look for reasons to write his golfing obituary, noting his failed to win the money list last year and the poor form in his last two outings.

But they belittle his victory in the World Matchplay by pointing out he spent of much of the week in the rough and only escaped because of his mystical powers of recovery and the intimidatory influence he exerts over all his opponents.

But he is never beaten until the last ball is in the hole and I'd be astonished if Tiger isn't a serious factor as they turn for home on Sunday afternoon and poised for his ninth major and his first since his success here two years ago.

But a bell keeps ringing in the back of the mind that Phil Mickelson's day will surely arrive and why not this week!

Now "if" only ...