Phil Mickelson reveals Augusta National tactic that made him Masters champion

Masters veterans pick up all kinds of Augusta National-taming wisdom along the way.

Ben Hogan would aim right of the 11th green, seeking to avoid opening Amen Corner with a splash and a gurgle. Nick Faldo has spoken of the importance of, in the case of missed putts, ensuring you leave yourself makable comebackers, if you can wrap your head around that strategy. Tiger Woods can tell you all about the effect Rae’s Creek has on how balls trundle across the property.

At LIV’s Miami event on Wednesday, Sergio Garcia, the 2017 green-jacket winner, said an easy trap into which players fall during Masters Week is wanting it too much and letting that intense desire to excel rattle them when things don’t get their way. “You have to regroup,” he said.

Seated next to Sergio Garcia was his LIV stablemate, Phil Mickelson, who has three emerald coats of his own. You’d be forgiven for thinking Mickelson, who will make his 32nd career Masters next week, couldn’t possibly have anything new to say about Augusta National but that will never be the case. The man has more stories than the Brothers Grimm, and on Wednesday he was in a particularly reflective mood — to the point where he readily parted with some of his own Augusta enlightenment.    

For Mickelson, learning how to win at Augusta National came down not so much to calming his nerves or carrying two drivers (something he has tried) but more so to his approach to a specific hole: the par-5 15th. “I would press,” he said of how he played 15 early in his Masters career. “I would force the issue.”

That’s an easy thing to do on Firethorn, which historically has played as the course’s second-easiest hole with a 4.77 scoring average.

Bobby Jones, the ANGC co-founder, believed that all of the course’s par-5s should be reachable by skilled players, and the 15th, which even after a recent lengthening extends to only 550 yards, is no exception. A drive over the crest of the fairway leaves only a mid-iron (longer hitters) to hybrid (shorter knockers) to a green guarded by water short and long. Eagles are gettable. Birdies common. Pars acceptable. But bogeys or worse? Those must be avoided at all costs.

In the second round of the 1998 Masters, Mickelson bogeyed 15. A year later, in the opening round, he made a double on the same hole, one of his only slipups en route to a T6 finish (five back of José María Olazábal). In 2000, again in the hunt, he bogeyed 15 on Sunday before tying for 7th. Lesson learned? It sure seemed that way. Over his next three Masters, Mickelson didn’t drop a single shot at 15, playing the hole in a cumulative eight under par. Then, in 2004, came his maiden win. He didn’t birdie 15 that week but also avoided any self-inflicted wounds.

“When I finally did win it, I felt like, all right, a 5 is okay there,” Mickelson said Wednesday. “Like, I could lose the tournament on 15; I don’t need to make 4 every time. So I would always press the issue, and I’d make 6, 7 a number of times trying to make a 4, and when I finally accepted a 5 on that hole and tried to win it elsewhere, that’s when I seemed to finally break through. That was the hole that I felt like being more patient and taking a different strategy and not pushing the issue allowed me to ultimately take advantage of the other holes to win.”

Mickelson, 54, can still overpower the 15th but not as easily as he once did. To add some muscle to his bag, he said he experimented with a 7-wood but found that it produced too much spin so instead he settled on a 5-wood.

“I’ve got one I really like and that I anticipate hitting into 13 and 15 based on the last couple of years where my ball is ending up off the tee and the yardage I have left,” he said.

Another Masters, another plan.