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Inside the Ropes

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Northern star

Phil Mickelson’s gutsy win at Riviera rescued the West Coast Swing. Plus, other winners and losers.

BY ELI MILLERPublished: February, 2009

There were lots of anxious moments for Mickelson during the final round at Riviera, but the end result was a successful title defense (Photo: Eddie Meeks).
Heading into last weekend's Northern Trust Open, Phil Mickelson’s 2009 campaign resembled the start of the PGA Tour season as a whole — unappealing.

The San Diegan missed the cut on familiar turf at the FBR Open, then failed to finish inside the top 40 at either the Buick Invitational or the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, tournaments he’s won three times apiece.

His struggles ended with a rousing title defense at Riviera Country Club. Mickelson had his “A” game for the first and third rounds, then had to dig deep for a one-over 72 on Sunday to stave off a top-caliber field and prevent what would have been the first time he squandered a lead of at least four shots heading into a final round.

“It was not easy,” Mickelson said after his ninth win in Southern California. “Even when I didn’t have my best stuff I was able to fight through it. That meant a lot to me.”

Though his world ranking dropped because of his spotty early-season efforts, Mickelson, who rose to No. 3 following the Riviera win, remains at or near the top in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of golf fans. Rightfully so: the 38-year-old still has immense talent, charm and an everyman quality that’s enabled him to retain existing followers and attract new ones. Winning the Northern Trust Open was vital to him and the public profile of the PGA Tour.

Besides Mickelson, two major champions — Geoff Ogilvy and Zach Johnson — have won tournaments early in ’09. Promising 20-somethings Nick Watney and Dustin Johnson each captured PGA Tour title No. 2, while Kenny Perry defeated Poway’s Charley Hoffman in a playoff at the FBR. Even Torrey Pines High School graduate Pat Perez ended his winless drought with a triumph at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

It’s not that there wasn’t a shortage of storylines on the West Coast Swing — especially in relation to the Southland scene — it’s that those storylines simply lacked the oomph normally supplied by having Tiger Woods involved. Though Woods only missed one of his normal stops, the Buick Invitational, his absence stuck out like John Daly’s belly. Final-round TV ratings from Torrey Pines were down 54 percent, and attendance at the event was down about 30 percent.

And the sagging economy certainly didn’t promote a jovial atmosphere.

Woods made his ’09 debut late last month at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, adding substantially to the momentum sparked by Lefty.

Besides Mickelson, here are other winners and losers from the West Coast Swing on the PGA Tour.


WINNER: Pat Perez. The monkey is finally off his back. An eagle on the 90th hole of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic clinched his first career Tour win in his 198th start. Perez (pictured) admitted he worked harder than ever on his game during the offseason, and swing changes he initiated last year paid off.

“I usually just screw around and play and have some drinks and whatever, but this time it was serious,” Perez said of his offseason routine. “I got to a point in my career, after seven years now, that I was just tired of being average.”
Perez didn’t contend in any other West Coast events but made the cut in each. A few more solid finishes should put him in excellent position to qualify for the Presidents Cup in October.


LOSER: John Merrick. The Long Beach native’s second-place finish at the Hope earned him $550,800, about $330,000 more than his previous high paycheck.

Merrick started the final round eight strokes off the lead and didn’t anticipate he’d have a shot at the title. But he did —scoring was at a premium thanks to intense winds, and a win was there for the taking.

However, the UCLA graduate failed to capitalize, blocking a few shots to the right down the stretch and falling off Perez’s pace.

“When you get that close, you kind of get a taste of [winning], you want to pull it off and finish it off. But it just didn’t work out that way,” Merrick said.

Merrick, who turns 27 this month, has already become one of the most talented ballstrikers on the PGA Tour. This wasn’t the first time he put himself in position to win — but the window was open wider in the desert than it had been at any other point. He simply didn’t execute in the heat of the moment.

Plus, he didn’t finish higher than 60th in any other West Coast Swing event.


WINNER: Charley Hoffman. So why is one runner-up from the Southland a loser and another a winner? Consistency. Hoffman engineered one of the best playing stretches of his career early in ’09, opening with four top-20 finishes. The 33-year-old, who was married last November at the Estancia Hotel & Spa in La Jolla, is pleased with his start but wants to have more than one victory on his résumé.

“You base your career off of wins, so obviously winning is the most important thing no matter how you finish,” he said.


LOSER: Anthony Kim. The young gun endeared himself to golf fans last year as the next big force on the PGA Tour. He validated his two-win campaign of 2008 by tying for second at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship, signaling he was ready to pick up right where he left off.

Then, a shoulder injury forced his withdrawal at the Bob Hope. And he wasn’t even in the field at the Northern Trust Open, opting instead to play in Australia at the Johnnie Walker Classic. He was born in Los Angeles, and while it was nice to have 29 of the world’s top 50 players in the field at Riviera, a 30th player of Kim’s caliber and local ties would have been great. The PGA Tour needs rising stars like Kim around as much as it needs uber-stars like Woods and Mickelson.


WINNER: Kevin Na. If the part-time Diamond Bar resident had his druthers, he probably wouldn’t mind if the Tour scheduled events exclusively at Waialae Country Club and TPC of Scottsdale. For the second straight year, Na notched top-five finishes at both the Sony Open in Hawaii and the FBR Open in Arizona — he missed a putt on the 72nd hole at FBR that would have tied him with Hoffman and Perry.


LOSER: Buick Invitational. If Woods does indeed stay healthy for the remainder of 2009, then the Buick will mark the only regular stop missed by the world’s No. 1 player. Maybe it was karma from the auto manufacturer’s decision to sever sponsorship ties with him.

Rains for the first three rounds dampened the atmosphere at Torrey Pines even more. The event just wasn’t the same, which is a shame considering it just hosted a major championship a year ago.


WINNER: Bill Lunde. The 33-year-old San Diego native has positioned himself as a dark horse for the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year thanks to a tie for sixth at Pebble Beach and a tie for 14th at the Hope.

“I’m starting to play a little better each week and getting more comfortable with how everything works out here. I’m moving in the right direction,” he said after a respectable tie for 30th at Riviera.


LOSER: John Mallinger. When asked about his overall 2009 performance following a tie for 41st at the Riviera, Mallinger said it was “pretty poor.” The Escondido native missed the cut in three of his first six starts, and his best finish — a tie for 25th at the Hope — included three double bogeys in his last 36 holes.

“I’m a little disappointed, but it’s a long year,” added Mallinger.

Eli Miller can be reached at emiller@churmmedia.com.