In his World Golf Hall of Fame induction speech last night, Phil Mickelson thanked his fans who have shared the highs and lows of his career.
“There have been a lot of times where I’ve struggled, and it’s been their energy that’s helped pull me through. I’ve tried to reciprocate by launching drive after drive in their general direction,” Lefty said with a grin.
Phil Mickelson
To be sure, Mickelson is known for some his wild drives – the wide-left drives on the final two holes of the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged might be the most famous or infamous – as much as he is for his classic short game. To steal a phrase from Forest Gump, watching Mickelson hit his driver is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.
Don’t expect that to change any time soon. Mickelson indicated today that he’s going to keep swinging his Callaway driver for the fairways and fences.
“I think that great courses give driver as an option a number of times,” Mickelson said at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. “I don’t think that truly great courses take driver out of your hands every single hole. But I think there’s greatness in decision‑making off the tee; having options to hit driver but with penalty, having options to hit less than driver, irons or hybrids, fairway woods with slight penalties, as well.
And so I don’t think that you want to take it out entirely. I don’t think that Olympic (site of the 2012 U.S. Open) does take it out entirely. I think there are some holes that you can and should hit driver. Certainly here at The Players, as well. I think that there’s probably about half the holes here that you’re going to want to hit driver. I don’t know much about the British at Royal Lytham) because I know it’s been redone a little bit since I was last there, but I don’t think that it takes it out entirely on any of these tournaments or courses.”
That’s good for Lefty and the galleries.
