Phil Mickelson dearly wants a victory at the Presidents Cup after woeful showings at team events the past two years, but do not expect a repeat pairing with Tiger Woods to be the solution.
Mickelson entered Thursday’s start of the biennial team matches against the Internationals having gone 0-5 at the 2003 Presidents Cup and 1-3 at the 2004 Ryder Cup, 0-2 with Woods in a duo that took the ‘fun’ out of dysfunctional.
”It was disappointing that it didn’t work out,” Mickelson said of being matched with Woods. ”I really thought we were going to play well together. I had been wanting to play with him for a few years. I think he felt the same.
”I thought it would have been cool to carry that though and I don’t think that another captain will go out on a limb again and do it given the scrutiny captain [Hal] Sutton went through after doing that.
”The bottom line is we just didn’t play our best. You can put it on a number of different things. It’s unfortunate.”
Mickelson, saddled for years as the best player to never have won a major, has now won more majors in the past two years than he has US points in team matches, taking the 2004 Masters and last month’s PGA Championship.
The left-hander went point-less when the US and Internationals shared the Cup in 2003 at South Africa after deadlocking 17-17. Returning US captain Jack Nicklaus made no secret of where he wants the difference to come from in 2005.
”Captain Nicklaus said all we need is a half-point more than last time and he looked at me and said, ‘You’ve just got to tie one match, man, come on,”’ Mickelson said.
”There were two or three matches I played pretty well in, took it to 17 and 18 and lost. I love the challenge of not knowing what you need to shoot and certainly after my performance in ’03 I want to come back with a stronger one.”
Sometimes, Mickelson noted, people can simply put too much pressure on themselves. He recalled that situation in last year’s Ryder Cup pairing with Woods when the two top-rated US players losing foreshadowed a European romp.
”We both knew it was a match that we thought we had to win because we put ourselves in a position of trying to go out first to get a point and some momentum for the team and we didn’t do that,” Mickelson said.
”We could feel the pressure mount and that was frustrating.”
Mickelson knows what he wants in a partner and found it in Chris DiMarco, his partner in Thursday’s opening foursomes match.
Nicklaus wanted to pair Mickelson with Stewart Cink instead but players prodded the switch.
”You want a guy that has a similar demeanor, that you guys get along well throughout the day because you’re going to spend four or five hours together in the same type of emotional state,” Mickelson said.
”Some people like to talk, some people don’t. It’s important that you have somebody you get along with to spend those hours to keep you relaxed. It’s also important to play with somebody who has a similar game to yours.” – Sapa-AFP