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.

After being only two shots off the lead after two rounds at the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club, Phil Mickelson finished the tournament with rounds of 71 and 70 on the Par 70 layout. His total score was 274, nine strokes more than winner Camillo Villagas from Columbia who celebrated his maiden victory on the PGA Tour.

After a complete washout on Thursday, players had to complete 36 holes on Saturday (rounds two and three). Here is Phil’s scorecard for the week:

Vijay Singh, who won the first two events of the 2008 FedEx Cup Playoff Series, clinched the $10 Mio. pay-out with a tie for 44th. While this certainly takes away some of the excitement of THE TOUR Championship in Atlanta, all eyes are now on the upcoming Ryder Cup (Sep. 18 - 21, Valhalla, Kentucky). I will tell you all about it with a detailed team comparison in the days to come.

Monday at work obviously wasn’t what Phil Mickelson was looking for this year: After three rather uneventful rounds of 69, 70, 72 (211, -2) at TPC Boston,  Phil missed the 54-hole cut. The Deutsche Bank Championship - where Phil was the defending champion - marks the first time that Mickelson got a day off due to the new rule that was introduced early in the 2008 season in order to reduce the number of players in the final round of PGA Tour events.

Under the new regulation, if more than 78 players make the halfway cut, the field will be reduced to low 70 professionals plus ties. Think that this is a funny rule? Why not check out this Golf Digest article…

Shortly after it was clear that Mickelson was not going to play in the 4th round, speculations began on whether he will tee it up at this week’s BMW Championship at Bellerive CC. No official statements have been issued yet - needless to say that I will let you know as soon as I hear of something.

What about my pre-tournament picks: With the exception of Phil Mickelson (see above) they are faring quite well: Ernie Els lays T5 (-13) and Sergio Garcia T3 (-14) after the third round. However, I was definitely wrong about Vijay Singh as he is currently tied with Garcia and very much in contention again. After Singh’s playoff victory last week the two will be paired together again today - I am looking forward to seeing who comes out on top this time. They are all chasing tournament leader Mike Weir who shot rounds of 61, 68 and 67 to lead by one over Camillo Villegas.

Last year’s Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston was one of the best week’s of the year: Not only for Phil Mickelson but certainly also for millions of golf fans watching the tournament live on the course or on television. After being paired with Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh during the first two rounds of the tournament, Phil and Tiger did again play together on Sunday and Phil blew Tiger away with a flawless front nine and then held him off down the stretch to win the trophy. 

I still consider this victory to be crucial for Phil as it proved once and for all that he can compete with and beat the best golfer in the world when he (Phil) is on top of his game. Every active golfer knows what such a big win can do to your self-confidence and Phil is certainly still benefiting from that push.

However, we are now in 2008 and Phil has not won a golf tournament since the Crowne Plaza Invitational in late May. While all of his latest results have been respectable, many fans were hoping for more. But after two Top-10s at the Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship, I think that a successful defense of his title is not out of the question.

Here are my picks for this week’s tournament:

1. Sergio Garcia: It is hard to believe how he always manages to not win when he is playing great, but he is obviously in great shape and up again for a big win.
2. Ernie Els: Since his victory at the Honda Classic in February, Ernie has probably played the worst golf of his entire career. It cannot go on like that, even though he is teeing it up for the first time at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
3. Phil Mickelson: He likes the course (even though it was slightly altered since the tournament last year) which is bringing back a lot of good memories. Phil played well last Sunday at The Barclays and is looking to carry the momentum over to the TPC Boston.

By the way, I might be one of only a few people thinking that Vijay Singh will not compete at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Why? Well, if the winner of a tournament would always do well in the next one, we would see the same names on top of the leaderboard all the time. But - with the exception of a certain Mr. Woods - that does not happen. I guess that the physical and mental fatigue is just too great following a big win and that even a guy like Vijay will have to take it easy this week.

Don’t forget: It’s Labor Day weekend, so the tournament won’t start until Friday…

Phil Mickelson finished the first leg of the 2008 FedEx Cup Playoffs in a tie for 19th after rounds of 70, 70, 72 and 68 for a final score 280 (-4) on the tough Par-71 layout at Ridgewood Country Club.

Hunter Mahan and Steve Stricker got off to a great start and lead the tournament at -9 (Mahan) after the first and -11 (Stricker) after the second day, respectively. With Phil at -2 after two rounds I thought that he was already out of it. However, things only got worse over the weekend for the two Americans and the final score of tournament champion Vijay Singh was -8. It turned out that the poor third round effectively ended Phil’s chances of taking both the tournament trophy and the lead in the FedEx Cup standings.

With the new FedEx Cup point system good performances in the playoffs bring a lot more points than last year. That’s the reason why the top three spots in the standings are now taken by the three players who made it to the sudden-death playoff at The Barclays:

In the second event of the 2008 Playoff series, Phil Mickelson will defend his title at the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston next week. He won that tournament in spectacular fashion against Tiger Woods a year ago.

One week after his exciting win at the Crowne Plaza Invitational, Phil Mickelson showed signs of fatigue during the four days of the prestigious Memorial Tournament in Dublin, OH and could not do better than finish in a tie for 20th. Phil shot rounds of 72, 75, 70 and 73 for a total of 290 (+2) and in every round did mix sensational long and short game with terrible speed on the greens and mistakes off the tee.

The title went to Kenny Perry who continued his excellent form in the last weeks and did win the Memorial Tournat for the third time. Perry did join Tiger Woods as the only two players to win the title three times. He also pretty much secured his participation in the 2008 Ryder Cup to be played in his native Kentucky in September and climbed to number 7 in the OWGR.

Phil is going to take next week (Stanford St. Jude Championship) off and start his preparations for the US Open at Torrey Pines immediately. There will be plenty at stake: While Mickelson could not significantly reduce the gap to world number one Tiger Woods in the OWGR, Tiger’s lead in the 2008 race for the FedEx Cup has been reduced to barely 2,128 points. 2nd place in the US Open could therefore be enough for Phil to overtake Tiger for the number one spot. However, only if Tiger does finish outside the Top-8 in La Jolla - is there anybody out there who seriously believes that?

After a fantastic wedge shot to within 10 feet out of the left rough on the 72nd hole, Phil Mickelson did sink the following putt to win his 34th PGA Tour title and second of the 2008 season by a single shot from Australia’s Rod Pampling and Tim Clark from South Africa. Phil Mickelson did win a prize money of $1,098,000 and 2,500 FedEx Cup Points to climb to number two in the FedEx Cup Rankings (behind Tiger Woods who is still sitting out from competitive golf after a knee surgery several weeks ago).

Phil shot rounds of 65, 68, 65 and 68 for a total of 266 (-14) at the Par 70 course at the Colonial Country Club in Forth Worth, TX. He did already win the Northern Trust Open in February. Lefty is the only player on the PGA Tour to have multiple victories in each of the past five seasons.

But what will be most remembered from this tournament was Mickelson’s remarkable wedge shot on the last hole: After pushing his drive left (remember: Phil plays golf left-handed) into thick rough on the 433-yard par four closing hole, he made a perfect swing that barely cleared the greenside bunker and landed within 10 feet of the cup. A few minutes later, Lefty casually rolled in his final putt of the tournament and gave a “high-five” to caddy Jim “Bones” McKay. At that time, Pampling had already missed his bid for birdie and thereby his chance to win one of the most prestigious tournaments on tour.

When asked about the shot in a post-round interview, Mickelson said that he hit the ball perfectly and said it was probably among the best five shots of his career.

Congratulations to Phil - what a great tournament and what an exciting finish! I hope that this victory will be a booster for his confidence and that Phil will be able to give Tiger a run for his money during the rest of the 2008 campaign. The next face-to-face of the two golf superstars will most likely happen during the US Open at Torrey Pines (June 9-15, 2008).