Phil Mickelson‘s Masters appearance was disappointing. The three-time Masters winner carded eight bogeys and a double bogey across two days to finish with a total score of 5 over par, missing the cutline. The fact that he was in good enough form right before the Augusta event (he had finished 6th at LIV Golf Miami just a week before) made the loss even harder to stomach. Now, the stage is set for another major, and he is all set for redemption, but it won’t be without challenges.
This year’s PGA Championship is the site of the last ever major a Lefty won, back in 2021, and became the oldest major winner. He will be looking to replicate the feat and add another feather to his cap with a strong performance at Quail Hollow. But there are some obstacles. While age is a factor, the usually undaunted golfer has come to terms with some important facts on the course. “The courses were not set up as long as they are now. I was able to take advantage and overpower a lot of holes,” Mickelson stated.
Mickelson is by no means a weak driver of the ball. Back in his prime, the six-time major winner was pretty strong off the tee. But as the courses change and the challenges keep growing harder, the LIV golf pro finds himself in tricky situations when playing against his peers. “They are lengthening and lengthening. Guys are at 190 ball speeds—Bryson, Aldrich Potgieter, and some of these guys are ridiculous. I am not going to overpower and beat them that way, so I have to find another way,” Lefty explained. Bryson’s ball speed is immaculate. His average ball speed for the 2021 season was 191.5 mph, 22.5 mph faster than the average ball speed on the PGA Tour.
He is not the strong driver he was. Age has caught up. And the longer courses are not helping. So, he concedes a lot of ground to better drivers of the ball like DeChambeau and Potgieter. However, that is not something that fazes Lefty. Mickelson will look to create advantageous positions for himself despite the glaring shortcomings in the drive. That is where his experience comes into play. “I have had to evolve a lot of my game with conditions over the 30-plus years I have played. This year is no different,” he professed.
This is a familiar course for the American golfer, having gained the third-highest strokes at Quail Hollow since 2010. So a familiar strategy could be highly plausible. He further added, “I am going to beat guys by getting the ball in play and then beating them with my iron play.” That seems like a legitimately great way of approaching the difference in the tee shot.
However, if Justin Thomas’s pre-tournament presser was to be believed, it is still highly difficult to outfox a powerful drive at a course like Quail Hollow, especially against someone as precise and ruthless as McIlroy.
Rory McIlroy’s tee shot is advantageous at Quail Hollow
Thomas was talking before the tournament he won two times, when he outlined how Quail Hollow is perfect for a golfer like Rory McIlroy. “First and foremost, he’s really, really good at golf, so that definitely helps. I would argue he’s the best driver of the ball I’ve ever seen, and that is extremely important here. But I think his shot shape—I think this golf course fits a high draw really, really well. There are a lot of tee shots, whether it’s holding fairways or fitting doglegs, taking bunkers out of play, or whatever it is,” Thomas explained.
McIlroy holds an impressive record at Quail Hollow, having won four Wells Fargo Championships here in Charlotte. It is easy to see that the course fits his playing style, and it will be a huge challenge for the rest of the field once the golfer decides to focus and get the best out of himself.
“That’s a tremendous advantage or threat at any golf course, but I feel like a place like this, where it doesn’t necessarily require a lot of thought or strategy off the tee, it’s generally pulling out the driver and just I need to hit this as far and straight as possible, and he’s really, really good at that. That’s something, like I said, that is an advantage at any golf course, but I think just the shot shape, and that is a good combination,” JT further added. The Northern Irish golfer’s drive game was key in giving him his Career Grand Slam at Augusta this year. In fact, McIlroy registered the second-longest drive of the game, 352 yards, right behind Bryson DeChambeau.
How do you think Phil Mickelson would be able to cope with a supreme driver of the ball in Rory McIlroy at the PGA Championship? What strategy could he come up with?
