In fact, it may have cost him more than that. "He got mad after that," said Pelz, "and I think that affected him for a few holes."
Mickelson left short a good birdie chance on 9 and made bogey out of the trees on 10. After dumping his tee shot on 12 into the front bunker, he suffered his fourth bogey in seven holes, pushing him to three over on his round. That should have been the end of him, but Lefty is nothing if not resilient.
Textbook birdies at 13 and 14 ensued, and again he was within shouting distance of the leaders. A pushed drive on the par-5 15th forced him to lay up, and for his third shot he played a wedge past the pin and expertly sucked it back to five feet. As Mickelson was walking to the green, everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing: When Phil makes this putt, he'll be five under, same as Tiger Woods. Par in, and on Sunday he and Woods would share a boffo pairing.
But Mickelson made a tentative stroke and his birdie attempt never scared the hole, one of the most egregious of his 33 putts. He walked off the green shaking his head incessantly.
On Saturday the par-3 16th featured its toughest pin placement, back-right atop a vertiginous slope, only a few paces in front of a bunker. No one in their right mind aims for that pin, but a flustered Mickelson couldn't resist.
"He wants to win majors again so badly," says Pelz, a nod to his pupil's three triumphs from 2004 to '06. "That makes it tough to be patient."
Phil jacked his tee shot into the back-right bunker, thus violating one of the basic rules of Augusta National: "You can't miss it right there, and I know that," he said. "You simply have to hit it left and try to make par."
Instead he three-putted again, for double bogey. Game over.
During the final round Mickelson shot 72 to sneak into a tie for fifth. After winning two out of three Masters, he has failed to contend on Sunday at the last two. His next major, the U.S. Open, will mark the two-year anniversary of his meltdown at Winged Foot, a career-altering double bogey on the 72nd hole from which he has not yet fully recovered. (Perversely, this Masters was his best finish in a major since then.)
The day after the Open the onetime boy wonder turns 38. Mickelson may yet get back to being the dominant player he was a few years ago, but after his brutal Saturday at Augusta, climbing that hill got a little tougher.
