Phil Mickelson a favourite to break Major duck

For those who have wondered how Phil Mickelson has endured the steady diet of guff he has been forced to ingest over the years, we have an answer.

For all of his 33 years, Mickelson has attended his clan's colorful family feeds, where even his parents have been known to dish out the ribs and pile on the salt. If you can survive being skewered there, you can survive anywhere.

"We're a family that likes to point out the things that make us unique, things we might not like about ourselves," said Tina Mickelson, Phil's sister. "We laugh so hard sometimes, I think food might come out of our noses."

This year, the laughs may finally be on the rest of us.

While the other top dogs in Georgia head into the week playing less than their best, Mickelson is the steadiest player in golf, words that have rarely been spoken. After enduring a dismal 2003 that was filled with zero triumphs and one near-tragedy, Mickelson has emerged as the pick of the populace to win his first major at Augusta National.

Mickelson, who has finished third three years in a row at Augusta, has throttled down his attack, is generally keeping the ball out of the magnolias and azaleas and could finally snap his 0-for-45 famine in the major championships. The oddsmakers have been swept up in Mickelson mania. They have listed him at 6-to-1 to win, second by a nose to Tiger Woods at 7-to-2.

Few saw this coming. In its season preview, Golf World magazine didn't list Mickelson among its 30 players to watch in 2004. Since he had dropped 12 world ranking spots in as many months, falling to No. 15, it didn't seem like much of a snub.

Now, Mickelson is a media darling. His TV commercials for Ford, which debuted during the Florida Swing, are airing nationally and generating intentional laughs at his own expense. He plays hockey with Wayne Gretzky, sings with country star Toby Keith and talks shop with race driver Dale Jarrett. The tongue-in-cheek question posed in the ad spots: "What will Phil do next?"

Golf fans, fellow players, caddies and analysts have posed that question a million times, right? When the Ford advertising folks approached him about the new pitch, he quickly jumped aboard.

"I loved it," Mickelson said, "because you have to be able to laugh at yourself."

Of course, there's a fine like between yuck and yuks. Mickelson attempted to sing during the Keith spot, creating a sound akin to a golf ball hitting a housecat.

"American Idol is safe," he said.

By now, Mickelson could have been an American icon, had he just won a few majors along the way, or made so many head-scratching decisions down the stretch. Mickelson has routinely tried do-or-die shots, even at the Masters, that were spectacularly risky.

"He had so much confidence in his ability, that sometimes the mechanism upstairs that says, `No, no, that's not the right shot,' that mechanism wasn't working sometimes," veteran Scott Hoch said. "Sometimes you've got to calm down. You've to figure out the percentages. Not that you play safe all the time, but you have to know when to go for it. And after a while, you've got to look back and say, `Hey, maybe I am too aggressive, or it doesn't pay off that often.'"

Consider it done. On the heels of his worst year, Mickelson won the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in January and has finished in the top 10 in seven of his eight 2003 starts. Credit an off-season plan to find more fairways, use a less-volcanic golf ball to help keep his drives in play, and increasing his effectiveness from inside 150 yards, where Mickelson again has become a scoring machine; he had 22 birdies in a 43-hole stretch at the Bob Hope.

Is the old Phil the Thrill extinct? Mickelson on a Sunday has been better than NASCAR. The networks love to eavesdrop on his animated conversations with caddie Jim Mackay, who is often the philosophical restrictor plate to Phil's lead-foot tendencies. Lately, though, Lefty has been laying up.

ABC Sports broadcaster Curtis Strange gave perhaps the most-succinct description of Mickelson's trademark style earlier this spring: "This guy is both good and bad, and you never know when the train wreck is going to happen."

They still are waiting for him to leave the rails this year. He ranks a solid 19th in greens in regulation, up from No. 107 last year. He is 21st in total driving (a combination of accuracy and distance), a big jump from 95th last year.

For those who like to argue the environment-versus-heredity issue, consider Mickelson as a kid. He was so rambunctious, his parents made him wear a football helmet around the house because he kept running into the edges of the furniture.

"I remember wearing it and somebody asked my mom, `Why is he wearing that?'" Mickelson said. "I come running around the corner, bang, right into the corner, fall down. He said, `Oh, I get it.'"

Of course, his visor has no chinstrap, though around Augusta National, he hasn't needed one of late. Mickelson broke 70 in the final round last year for the first time at the Masters, and for a player reputed to be as volatile as any on the planet, Mickelson has been a steady presence on the green-and-white Augusta National leaderboard longer than anybody. At five years in a row, he has the longest active streak of consecutive top-10 finishes.

All vestiges from his winless 2003 appear gone. Few knew just how much Mickelson was forced to address early last year, when his wife and infant son Evan nearly died during childbirth.

"I think there's a lot to be said by having a clear mind," Woods said two weeks ago of Mickelson's comeback. "Your mechanics may be sound, but if your mind is not clear, I bet you will struggle more often than not."

Mickelson's sister Tina, an analyst for The Golf Channel, said her brother stood helpless in the hospital hallway, his wife close to death in one room and his newborn child in similar straits in the next. Since Mickelson decided not to divulge the particulars, nobody knew until three months ago what actually had happened.

A week after Evan was born, Tina said she was watching the NBC broadcast of the 2003 Players Championship when the subject of Mickelson, who missed the Florida Swing in order to tend to his family, came up. "It's pretty bad when you turn on the TV and hear them questioning his drive for the game and whether he still cared about golf," Tina said.

Of course, Mickelson's refusal to disclose his family particulars only increased the confusion about his absence and disappointing play over the remainder of the year.

"He's a very private guy," said Rick Smith, his swing coach. "He didn't want to get into it and have to keep reliving it every week. It would have continued to have been brought up."

Mickelson shrugged it off. He was savaged for the sheer sport of it last year, especially when in the midst of a sloppy golf season, he tried out for the Class AAA Toledo Mud Hens and failed to crack 70 mph on the speed gun.

"Who hasn't (taken shots)?" Mickelson said. "You have to have a thick skin to play this game."

Everywhere he goes, people know what's best for him and his game. Early last year, Mickelson took a trip to Las Vegas to see swing coach Butch Harmon, the former teacher for Tiger Woods. Harmon beseeched Mickelson to throttle down his swing in order to keep the ball in play, only to have Mickelson wheel around on the range and say testily, "I can't afford to lose five or 10 yards."

When they walked into Harmon's office, replica flags from Woods' major championships were hanging in the wall. "Impressive," Mickelson said.

"Especially those four across the top," Harmon said. "Because he won all those in a row. You get win one of those yourself if you'd just back off a little."

Maybe it finally soaked in, since Mickelson it trying all sorts of new approaches. Last week, shortly before he finished 10th at the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta, Mickelson sneaked up the interstate to Augusta National and played two practice rounds -- a preparatory first for him at the Masters.

"This year, I feel like I've been playing better than I ever have and playing with more confidence and maybe with a little better course management," he said last week.

What will Phil do next, you ask?

How about win?