Phil Mickelson slipped back to ninth position at the Barclays Singapore Open after entering the final round T3 and only four shots behind the rather unknown tournament leader Chapchai Nirat of Thailand. Phil shot a final round 75 (+4) that included a triple-bogey 8 on his front nine.

Once again the players had to cope with difficult meteorological conditions: After play was suspended several times due to bad weather, most players had to play the end of their third round and the entire fourth round on Sunday.

The tournament was won by India’s Jeef Milkha Singh by a stroke over world-class players Padraig Harrington (IRE) and Ernie Els (SAF). Both Harrington and Els failed to birdie the Par-5 72nd hole and thereby missed out on a sudden-death play-off.

Despite his disappointing finish, Phil won prize money of $110,000 for his last official tournament in 2008. However, his next showing will be at the LG Skins Game, which will be held at Indian Wells Golf Resort over Thanksgiving weekend.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

A poor final round 73 (+1) turned out to be costly for Phil Mickelson at the rain-delayed HSBC Champions Tournament at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China. After three solid rounds of 66, 70 and 70 Phil did enter the 4th round in a tie for 3rd and only two shots behind overnight leader Oliver Wilson (ENG). However, during Monday’s final round, Mickelson’s putting was not at its usual level.

Phil did manage only one birdie (which was offset by a bogey) during the first 14 holes and a double-bogey six on the difficult 15th hole effectively ended his hopes of defending the title won twelve months ago. Mickelson’s final round 73 was by far the worst of all players in contention for the title.

Spain’s Sergio Garcia won the tournament after beating Wilson with a birdie on the second hole of a sudden-death play-off. It was Garcia’s third win of the season and helped him overtake Phil in the Official World Golf Rankings. It is the first time in a long time (does anyone know exactly how long?) that Phil is positioned below number two in the world. I personally feel that the new ranking is a fair reflection of the results that both players (Mickelson and Garcia) have achieved in 2008: While Garcia managed to add a number of excellent finishes to his three victories in the US, Europe and Asia, Phil had a good but not great year (two titles on the PGA Tour) and did disappoint especially during the big events, notably the Majors and the FedEx Cup play-offs. 

Here is the new ranking (as of November 10th 2008):

I cannot remember the last time I looked at a list of the ten best players in the world and Ernie Els was not on it…

The HSBC Champions tournament had to be finished on Monday because the 2nd day of play was a complete wash-out following torrential overnight rain and a steady downpour throughout the day. While the organizers tried to play catch-up on Saturday and sent out players in groups of three off both the 1st and 10th tee, another three hours were lost due to bad weather that forced another suspension of play. The third round was therefore completed on Sunday and the top players only managed to complete a few holes before darkness ended play.

Phil will stay in Asia and end his 2008 campaign with a start at the Barclay’s Singapore Open this week. While the field won’t be quite as strong as at the HSBC Champions, players like Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and Adam Scott should guarantee an exciting tournament.

I will give you the complete tournament summary together with my personal review of the golf year 2008 next week. So check back on www.phil-mickelson.com or sign-up to my RSS feed.

After a six-week break since his last tournament (a tie for 3rd in THE TOUR Championship in late September), Phil Mickelson will end his golfing year with two events in Asia. At this week’s HSBC Champions Tournament in Shanghai (China), Phil will try to defend the title he won last year in a playoff with Englishmen Lee Westwood and Ross Fisher after giving up a five-shot lead on the final day.

Mickelson will play the first two rounds with Ian Poulter (ENG) and India’s Jeev Milkha Singh. Even though there are only 67 players in the field this week (no cut) and Tiger Woods is not one of them, competition will be stiff for Phil. Among the professionals trying to take the HSBC Champions Tournament’s trophy from Phil are stars like Sergio Garcia, Robert Karlsson, Anthony Kim and Padraig Harrington.

A week later, Phil will tee it up at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore for the Barclays Singapore Open. The main reason for Phil’s presence in these two tournaments will be their main sponsors Barclays and HSBC - both companies are also two of Phil’s most important personal sponsors. However, it seems as if Phil is nowadays generally less reluctant when it comes to making the effort of playing in foreign countries. While he did only leave the PGA Tour for the British Open and the Ryder Cup during the early years of his career, he is now obviously looking to become somewhat of a global golfer and spread his wings to unknown territory in Asia and Europe.

I am really looking forward to seeing Mickelson play all over the world. Just look at players like Gary Player or Ernie Els and how popular they have become through their global presence. I am sure that Phil’s friendly character and great personality will win him even more fans overseas when they only get a chance to see him play.

Of course I will tell you all about Phil’s success in Asia in my next post – so stay with me.