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Hey, Isn’t That Phil Mickelson?
Phil Mickelson is one of the best players on the TOUR today. He is a Callaway staffer.
The number two golfer in the Word Golf Rankings was going to be great from the beginning. With 40 professional wins and 33 of those on the PGA TOUR, Phil Mickelson is both a fan favorite and a contender.
Phil Mickelson had one of the most illustrious amateur careers of anyone currently on TOUR. Phil attended Arizona State University where he won three NCAA individual championships and won three Haskin’s Awards as the top individual golfer in the nation.
Mickelson’s career began with lots of "firsts". He was the first collegiate golfer to earn All-American honors all four years in school. In 1990, Phil won the U.S. Amateur, becoming the first left handed golfer to achieve this victory. Phil won his first PGA Tour event, the Northern Telcom Open as an amateur. It was just the fourth time an amateur has won an event in the history of the PGA Tour.
After turning pro in 1992, Mickelson began winning tournaments almost immediately. In his first ten years on tour, Phil amassed 20 victories, and climbed through the career earnings list to third all time. However, Phil was also often referred to as the ‘best player never to win a major.
Phil Mickelson thought this was a misnomer and redesigned his swing and mentality to prove it. In 2004, Phil defeated Ernie Els on Sunday at The Masters to claim his first major victory. In 2005 Mickelson won the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, and in 2006 Phil repeated his victory at The Masters for this third career Major victory in as many years.
Just as Phil exorcised major championships demons, they caught up with him again at the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. On the 72nd hole with the title all but wrapped up, Phil’s world came crashing down when he pulled out his driver and sliced his tee shot off a nearby tent and behind a tree. Rather than chip out and play for a bogey, Mickelson went for the green, caught a tree limb and fell straight down. When the carnage ended Mickelson was left with a six and had to watch Geoff Ogilvy accept the trophy while the world listened to Phil say, "I am such an idiot."
Winged Foot notwithstanding, Mickelson has over 35 victories around the world and has career PGA Tour earnings of over $47 million. With a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame firmly secured, his recent victories at The Players Championship and Riviera have Phil rounding well into form to make another run at the majors.
Mickelson is a favorite of many casual and serious golf fans. He always has a friendly smile on his face, and is more than willing to greet his fans. Never one to fear attempting a risky shot, he can hit the ball a country mile as well. While the go-for-broke power game may define him, his short game prowess has been Phil’s signature. Mickelson has one of the most creative minds around the green, and has the skill to make the most of any situation. There have only been a few players that have ever been as good as Lefty at the flop shot from a tight lie.
Just prior to the 2004 Ryder Cup, Mickelson left Titleist and signed with Callaway. Despite struggling a bit with the new equipment in the Ryder Cup, Phil has never looked back. In the 2004 Masters, Phil carried two FT-3 drivers. One was an inch longer and weighted for a power draw, and the other for a fade. Currently, Phil has an 8.5 degree FT-5 driver in the bag along with an X-Tour 13 degree fairway wood and 18 and 21 degree X-Tour hybrids. He carries 5-P Callaway X-Forged Prototype irons, and a 50, 55, and 60 degree X-Tour wedges. Phil’s putter is a PM prototype putter very similar to the XG #9 available at retail.
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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips
SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”
“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”
Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.
According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”
CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.
“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.
Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history
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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar
Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.
It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.
PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place
The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.
This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.
With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.
360° and in!
A nervy par save by @TaylorPendrith to remain one back as he seeks his first PGA TOUR victory @CJByronNelson. pic.twitter.com/LVFXUSidSg
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 5, 2024
DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four
It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.
It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.
.@adrianotaegui birdies the 16th to tie the lead at -17 ?#VolvoChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/p4tfE5DRJa
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 5, 2024
PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella
Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.
64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.
.@TBalla21 eagles 17, shoots 65 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the KIA Open. pic.twitter.com/TTOL2LxSdh
— PGA TOUR Americas (@PGATOURAmericas) May 4, 2024
PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win
Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.
The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.
Off the green? No worries for @ScottDu12500063
8-under solo leader @InsperityInvtnl pic.twitter.com/hoj5OujL5C
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 4, 2024
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Morning 9: Pendrith’s maiden Tour win | Morikawa back with former coach | Brooks victorious
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Frank
Apr 2, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Phil is a great golfer and he appears to be a genuinely nice fellow. The Masters should be exciting and I hope he does well.
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habana
Apr 2, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Great article. Phil is my pick for the Masters winner this year, he has the every two years thing going.
What are the lofts of his irons? they must be really strong to make up the gap between the 21 degree hybrid and 5 iron and to make enough of a gap between PW and Gap wedge.
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