The Limerick Summary: 2012 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am

Winner: Phil Mickelson

Around the wider world of golf: Jessica Korda won a 6-woman playoff to make the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open her first win on the LPGA, LET & ALPG (yes, this was a massively co-sanctioned event); Mardan Mamat won the ICTSI Philippine Open on the Asian Tour (I love this -- it was played at the Wack Wack Golf & Country Club in Manila); Corey Pavin finally got his first Champions Tour win in a playoff at the Allianz Championship; and Rafael Cabrera-Bello grabbed the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour.

Plus, for you NBA fans keeping up with Linsanity, the Knicks got their 5th straight win Saturday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves.



If you read this blog even infrequently, you know I don't believe that age is a barrier to good golf. I fully expect Tom Watson to win another major. I believe Tiger is going to get past Jack's 18 majors. And I believe we haven't seen the best of Phil Mickelson yet.

But I have to admit, even I was caught off-guard by this performance! I simply can't put it any better than the wrap-up at PGATOUR.com:

Phil Mickelson went from a six-shot deficit to a two-shot lead in just six holes, closed with an 8-under 64 for a two-shot victory over Charlie Wi and gave Tiger Woods a thrashing at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on a Sunday not many saw coming.

Mickelson and Woods played in the second-to-last group, and Mickelson beat him by 11 shots. He won for the fourth time at Pebble Beach, and became only the ninth player in PGA TOUR history with 40 wins.

And I believe it was Tim Rosaforte on GC's Golf Central who said that, after a decade of leaving players in his wake, Tiger got a chance Sunday to find out what it felt like.

What can I add to that? Phil was -5 after 6 holes, for Pete's sake! He made shot after shot, putt after putt, and after it looked like Tiger might close the gap between them with a hole-out from the bunker on 12, Phil drained a long par putt to knock all the wind out of his sails.

Don't cry for Tiger, though. He's making good progress. I know everybody talks about him having worked with Sean Foley since late 2010. But since he wasn't healthy enough to do any continuous work until after the PGA Championship last year, I don't see this as more than maybe 8 or 9 months of useful work. Tim Rosaforte noted that Tiger had similar problems when he was making his first swing change with Butch, so this is pretty much (over) par for the course.

Still, I'm sure this one hurt... especially since it was Phil that laid this whuppin' on him. (That's a "down south" phrase, for those of you in other parts of the world. It means he beat Tiger baaaaad.) In their last 5 pairings, Phil has now beat him 5 out of 5... and that goes back way before that close encounter with the fire hydrant.

Oh yeah -- there was an amateur competition going on as well, so I suppose I should mention that the juggernaut team of Padraig Harrington and J.P. McManus grabbed the team title. Ray Romano actually finished in 5th place and Tony Romo, playing at scratch and pretty much carrying Tiger on Sunday, finished T17. I have to say I'm pretty impressed by that showing, and I'm starting to like Tony's chances of getting through at least some of U.S. Open Qualifying this year.

But this Limerick Summary isn't for amateurs. No, it's for the guy who stood up and showed he's a pro through and through. He admitted this week to having doubts, but I think they're all gone now. As his wife Amy told him afterwards, "What a round! Are you kidding me?"

With Tiger and Phil, we're obsessive;
When paired up, they're always aggressive.
But this time, T. Woods
Couldn't put up the goods
While The Phil Show was downright impressive.

The photo came from the front page of PGATOUR.com.