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Golf

13th Apr 2019

Phil Mickelson’s pre-round prediction is about as ballsy as they come

Patrick McCarry

Phil Mickelson

Live by the driver, die by the driver.

“Hitting bombs!”

That is what Phil Mickelson has vowed to do as he chases his fourth green jacket at The Masters.

‘Lefty’ headed into the final two rounds at Augusta National just three shots off the four-men tied for the lead at -7. Mickelson hit an opening round 67  but could not push on in his second round.

He carded a +1 score of 73 but he was not far off the leading group as all headed into ‘Moving Day’ at the lush Georgia golf course.

On his scoot up Magnolia Drive, Mickelson delivered a piece to camera (he was mostly focused on the road) that set the scene for his assault on the course, and field.

Before that, however, he got in a playful dig at Matt Kuchar, who he was teeing off with today. Making reference to Kuchar only paying a stand-in caddy $10,000 despite winning a big tournament, Mickelson quipped:

“Obviously we’re not going to have any side action today because I’d probably only see 0.06% of it, if I did win!”

Down to brass tacks, Mickelson sent out a message of clear, attacking intent. He declared:

“Wearing all black, being aggressive. Hitting BOMBS!

“I got to 125.1 (kph) club-head speed last night. I haven’t done that, I think, in my life. Why is that important? Well, when Dave Pelz ran an analysis on improving every statistical category by 10%, every category led to lower scores… except longer drives.

“There was only one course in the world where longer drives equated to lower scores. That’s right, Augusta National. The reason is that the shelves are so small, where the pins are, that you’ve got to hit bombs off the tee, to be able to get to those small sections.

“And that’s what I’m going to do today – hit bombs, and attack the pin here at The Masters.”

Lordy me, what a sales pitch.

SOLD!

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