Mickelson collects another green jacket

Phil Mickelson started Masters week with two drivers in his bag and ended it magnificently today with a second green jacket in his locker.

In a marvellous display of front-running, Mickelson held off a succession of challenges in the final round at Augusta National to regain the title which broke his Major duck two years ago.

Not only that, the 35-year-old left-hander’s two-stroke victory over South African Tim Clark means he has now won golf’s last two Major championships.

And that in turn means, of course, that if he can also capture the US Open in June he will come to the Royal Liverpool club a month later with a chance to emulate Tiger Woods by holding all four major trophies at the same time.

Suddenly the man who for so long carried the tag of “best player never to win a major” cannot stop winning them. Indeed he cannot stop winning full stop. Last week he triumphed in Atlanta - by 13.

Nobody since Sandy Lyle in 1988 had come to Augusta on the back of a victory and won again. But Mickelson was not going to let that or anything else or anybody else stop him.

His closing 69 gave him a seven-under-par aggregate of 281.

Clark achieved his best-ever finish in a major by holing a bunker shot at the last, leaving defending champion Tiger Woods joint third with Retief Goosen, Chad Campbell, Fred Couples and Jose Maria Olazabal, whose superb 66 was the low round of the week.

Woods threatened to put the heat on, but just could not come up with the shots - or more accurately the putts – to bring him a fifth title.

Even when he birdied the 13th and 15th they were disappointments. He had been only six and eight feet away for eagle. And after almost holing-in-one at the 16th he followed with a three-putt bogey at the 17th.

A closing 30-footer for another birdie merely had him shaking his head. He so wished it and more had come sooner.

“I putted atrociously,” he said. “I am probably going to snap this putter in about eight pieces.

“It was frustrating. I felt in so much control from tee-to-green – the best I have hit it in years and exactly the way you want it in the final round of a major.

“If I had putted well I would have given Phil a battle, but he has done exactly what he needed to do. If I putted normal today was the day, but I missed them all.”

Mickelson’s play, of course, also extended Europe’s wait for a major winner. Paul Lawrie at the 1999 Open remains the last.

Darren Clarke was only one behind when he birdied the first hole of the closing round, but then had four bogeys in six holes from the fifth and eventually finished with a 77 for three over and only 22nd place.

The Ulsterman had also been right in the thick of things when the third round resumed at 7.45am following yesterday’s rain delay – but although his 72 kept his chances alive it included a triple bogey eight on the 15th, where he put two balls in the water.

Clarke said: “Just nothing happened at all. Everything that had a chance of going in stayed out and it was just one of those days.

“I got off to a great start, but couldn’t get anything to go in.

“I shot 77, but it wasn’t 77 golf. So be it. Obviously disappointing, but it would have been worse if I had played badly. I was happy with my attitude.”

The most spectacular crash was not Clarke’s, though. Rocco Mediate went from joint leader to nowhere to be seen by taking 10 on the short 12th. An old injury had flared up by then and he put three balls in the lake.

Woods' 10 majors have all come with him at least sharing the lead with a round to go and mounting a successful comeback proved beyond him once more.

Mickelson had been four behind Campbell at the halfway stage but, in a third round that spilled into today because of rain, Campbell stumbled to a 75 and the world number four’s 70 was good enough to put him one ahead.

Between rounds he said: “I didn’t give much credence yesterday to the fact that the last 15 winners of the Masters have been in the last group, but now I am leading I like that stat.

“Yes there’s pressure, but it’s what you dream about as a kid and what you work for as a pro.” He then went out and made that statistic 16.

At one point in the front nine of the final round there was a five-way tie but Mickelson never allowed anybody to overtake him and with birdies at the seventh, eighth and 13th his destiny was in his own hands.

That remained so even when twice winner Olazabal came charging through the field. Olazabal turned in 32 and after three-putting the 11th for bogey followed birdies at the 13th and 14th with a towering long-iron to two feet for eagle at the 530-yard 15th.

He even had a 40-foot chance to go joint top on the next, but another three-putt bogey there effectively ended his hopes of a third victory.

Couples, at 46 trying to take over from Jack Nicklaus as the tournament’s oldest-ever champion, then had a chance to move only one behind on the 14th, but when he three-putted from just four feet the gap was three.

It went to four when Mickelson birdied the 15th and, as he had said he wanted to, he was able to walk up the last knowing the title was in the bag. His only bogey of the round took none of the gloss off.

Couples said: “If I had made the one at the 14th I might have made Phil work harder, but he played very well. He shot an easy 69 – he didn’t struggle at all.”

Pádraig Harrington and David Howell had started the day with high hopes, but managed only 75 and 76 for their third rounds and, playing together for the closing lap, added 74 and 72 respectively. As a result Harrington finished four over and Howell two over.

Before being helped into his green jacket by Woods – it had been the other way round last year – Mickelson said: “I knew it was going to be a tough day and it was unnerving to watch these guys go out ahead of me and make birdie after birdie.

“But I ended up playing well and it will be a memory I cherish forever.

“Fred and I kept saying how much fun it was to be in the final group on the final day of the Masters.”

Collated final round scores and totals in the Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia, United States (USA unless stated, par 72):

281 Phil Mickelson 70 72 70 69

283 Tim Clark (Rsa) 70 72 72 69

284 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 76 71 71 66, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 73 72 69, Tiger Woods 72 71 71 70, Chad Campbell 71 67 75 71, Fred Couples 71 70 72 71

285 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 74 70 68, Vijay Singh (Fij) 67 74 73 71

286 Stewart Cink 72 73 71 70

287 Mike Weir (Can) 71 73 73 70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 74 69 72, Stephen Ames (Can) 74 70 70 73

288 Arron Oberholser 69 75 73 71, Billy Mayfair 71 72 73 72

289 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 70 75 73 71, Scott Verplank 74 70 74 71, Rod Pampling (Aus) 72 73 72 72

290 Nick O’Hern (Aus) 71 72 76 71, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 71 75 73 71, David Howell (Gbr) 71 71 76 72

291 Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 73 74 71, Davis Love 74 71 74 72, Mark Hensby (Aus) 80 67 70 74, Jim Furyk 73 75 68 75, Darren Clarke (Irl) 72 70 72 77

292 Adam Scott (Aus) 72 74 75 71, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 72 74 73 73, Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 73 70 75 74, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 75 70 73 74, Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 71 74 76

293 Brandt Jobe 72 76 77 68, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 73 75 76 69, Zach Johnson 74 72 77 70, Ted Purdy 72 76 74 71

294 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 76 70 74 74, Tim Herron 76 71 71 76, Rocco Mediate 68 73 73 80

295 Justin Leonard 75 70 79 71, Ben Curtis 71 74 77 73, Jason Bohn 73 71 77 74

296 Larry Mize 75 72 77 72, Luke Donald (Gbr) 74 72 76 74, Rich Beem 71 73 73 79

297 Olin Browne 74 69 80 74

298 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 72 74 79 73

300 Ben Crenshaw 71 72 78 79.