Mickelson loses THE TOUR Championship, Battle of the Generations
PGA Tour | 
Written by BigRed
On an exciting day at East Lake Golf Club, Phil Mickelson (38 years old) narrowly missed a breaking 20ft putt for birdie on his 72nd hole of THE TOUR Championship to join a play-off between Camillo Villegas (26 yrs) and Sergio Garcia (28 yrs). He finished in a tie for 3rd together with his Ryder Cup team mate Anthony Kim (23 yrs) while Villegas went on to win his second consecutive tournament and secure 2nd place in the Fed Ex Cup Rankings worth $3 million.
Mickelson played excellent golf all day long and held a share of the lead for a few holes before missing the fairway to the left with his drive on No. 16. His low iron shot to the green came to rest in a difficult lie on the bank of a steep bunker. After his difficult pitch barely made it to the putting surface, Mickelson’s par attempt missed and Phil wasn’t able to recover. He finished the Fed Ex Cup in 7th place, 4 spots lower than in 2007.
THE TOUR Championship was Mickelson’s last tournament on American soil in 2008. While it is certain that he won’t play in any event during the PGA Tour’s Fall Series, he is expected to tee it up in Asia before the year’s end.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Can I just repeat what I’ve blogged elsewhere before finding this section:
“And again I gotta say: Keep using the X9 putter, Phil. When he was persisting to use the previous blade putter without success I would keep remonstrating with him on the TV: “Why are you still trying to use that putter”. “Get rid of it”. “Oh no, how could he miss that short putt by a mile”. Even with an allingment line milled into it. But did it help? Not one bit. I was driving my wife and buddies crazy telling them all that Phil is obviously ruining his scores with that putter…especially when he was pitching great balls close to the pin. He nearly even won the Tour Championship last week, scrambling through with the help of the X9, and that was achieved even with poor driving accuracy and pitching. He narrowly missed getting into the play-off by one shot in the closing holes..I believe the result of a very poor greenside chip. (a very difficult one)
However, overall that putter kept him well in contention, and I believe that he hasn’t putted so well for a long time as he has in his last two competitions…with the X9 of course. Frequently he himself appeared surprised by some the putts he made last weekend…as was the crowd. This was the ol’ Phil glowing and enjoying his game…his putting, that is.”