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By AP – Phil Mickelson missed the fairway almost half the time in three laps of the Honda Classic, which is not a good thing.
Mickelson, however, found a silver lining.
“This allows you, first of all, to prepare for the MastersSaid Mickelson.
If there was a question as to where Mickelson’s mind is these days, this is the answer.
He has appeared in three PGA Tour Champions tournaments since reaching the age of 50, winning his first two appearances. But he still believes he can compete and take part in the PGA Tour, and that would include the majors – perhaps most notably the one looming in a few weeks at Augusta National, where he has won three times.
“I see a lot of progress,” Mickelson said on Saturday after his third round at Honda. “Even though most people just look at the results, look at the score and say, ‘God, he’s playing well, he’s not playing well.’ I’ve seen a lot of progress.”
He is right. The dashboard does not show this.
Mickelson has two cents to enter Sunday’s final round, well out of the competition after rounds 71, 68 and 69 at the PGA National. He’s hanging on to the top 100 in the world rankings – No.99 right now – and is set to extend his winless streak on the PGA Tour to 42 events dating back to Pebble Beach in 2019.
“I haven’t played well for a while now – I’d say even a few years – and I’m starting to see glimpses of playing at the level I expect again,” said Mickelson.
“The results don’t show it yet. I threw probably four, five shots on two or three holes on day one and day two and that didn’t get me in the game. more good shots than me for a long time. “
He is not in the Dell Technologies Match Play field next week, so he will have more time to prepare for the Masters. He’s finished in the top five on 11 occasions, but hasn’t been better than 18th in his last five appearances there.
But his trips into the rough at the PGA National – he missed 20 of 42 fairways this week – got him thinking about what to expect.
“The rough is more like Augusta’s first cut … which I think is really cool of them,” Mickelson said.
He touted the condition of the PGA National and clearly had fun this week, even without pretending.
“I have addressed some of the issues in my game that seem to be starting to arise,” said Mickelson.
“So while the results don’t show it yet, I’m very excited about what lies ahead as I see the progress.”
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