Mickelson nervy about Masters defence

Even though he has won two of the last three Masters Phil Mickelson admits he is “a little nervous” about the start of his title defence at Augusta tomorrow.

Last year Mickelson travelled to the first major of the season riding the crest of a wave, having just won the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta by an incredible 13 strokes.

Unable this time to go back to the Sugarloaf course for his final warm-up because of its switch of dates on the US Tour schedule, the left-hander has not had a top-20 finish on his last two starts.

And while Tiger Woods has just added a 13th World Championship to his 12 majors Mickelson said: “I feel like I’m playing well, but the scores have not been reflecting it the last two weeks, so I’m a little bit nervous.

“Last year was the best-case scenario. I didn’t have stress – I knew I was playing well.

“And I can’t think of a time I’ve felt more comfortable or more relaxed going into the final round.

“I sat in the locker room talking to Billy Casper and hearing old stories. I enjoyed the time we had here, we had a lot of rain delays and had a lot of hours telling stories.”

As 12 months ago, Mickelson will have two drivers in his bag. But, unlike last year, one of them will be the revolutionary square-headed club just on the market.

“The square one goes 20 yards longer than my regular one, so when I need distance I use it. When I try to hit little low shots or work it around the trees on 10 or 13 I’ll use the regular-shaped driver.

“I think there’s a slight mis-perception that you have to hit the ball right-to-left here. Augusta National tests your abilities for ball-striking, your ability to hit the ball high, hit the ball low, the ability to hit fades, draws.

“You have to be able to manoeuvre the ball around and I love the way the course sets up.”

Deciding not to play in Houston last week enabled Mickelson to travel to Augusta eight days ago.

“There are very few courses where I get excited just to go play and every time I stand on the first tee at Augusta National I’m excited just to play a round of golf.

“There are very things in the game that I love more than just playing here and it’s great to have a chance to play and see the course when there’s nobody out here.”

Two years ago Mickelson, as the defending champion, helped Woods into his fourth green jacket. Last year Woods helped Mickelson into his second.

Asked if they were getting like Nicklaus and Palmer in going back and forth - Palmer won in 1962 and 1964, Nicklaus in 1963 and 1965 – Mickelson said: “I hope not because that would mean what I don’t want it to mean this week.”

He might like to be reminded, however, that in 1966 Nicklaus became the first player to make a successful defence of the title.

Woods is going for a third successive major and on that his great rival commented: “I think it’s a fun challenge to beat him. He’s most likely the best player the game has ever seen.

“If I have a great rest of my career and I go out and win 20 more tournaments and seven more majors to get to 50 wins and 10 majors, which would be an swesome career, I still won’t get to where he’s at today.

“So I don’t try to compare myself against him. What I like to do is to try to win as many tournaments and as many majors that I can. With him in the field, it just gives it more credibility.

“I don’t think I could have imagined the impact that Tiger Woods has had on the game of golf, but I sure am a huge benefactor and I sure am appreciative of it.

“The purses that we were playing for when I came out on Tour were one million to 1.7million dollars (£500,000-£860,000). Now it’s five to six million (£2.5million to £3million) every week and we’ve got the World Golf Championships that are in the sevens (£3.5million) and the Players Championship at eight (£4million).”

Add to that the fact that the winner of the new FedEx Cup this summer receives 10 million dollars (£5million) and life is not bad on the US Tour.

But while 2006 was the year Mickelson won another Masters, it was also the year he had the chance to win a third successive major himself and blew it with a double bogey on the final hole of the US Open.

Inevitably, that came up during his press conference this week, but he said: “I’m not really thinking about the US Open as much as I am trying to defend my Masters championship.

“I’ve had to overcome tough losses in the past. Certainly Winged Foot was a tough loss. Shinnecock was a tough loss (in the 2004 US Open) – I doubled 17 there to lose and had to come back from that.

“Losing the PGA in ’01 after three-putting the 16th was probably the hardest. I thought it was harder because I hadn‘t won a major at the time and didn’t know for sure if I could do it.

“But I had already proven to myself (last year) that I could birdie five of the last seven to win the Masters or birdie the last at the PGA. It wasn’t as big of a confidence killer.”