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MICKELSON ACHIEVES SUCCESS EARLY AND OFTEN
KA LUA, Maui, Hawaii -- Golf has been a part of Phil Mickelson's life since
a very early age. The defending champion of the Mercedes Championships started
swinging a golf club when he was 18 months old. He began copying his father's
swing by standing opposite him during his first 18-hole round of golf at age four.
At age nine he knew he wanted to be a professional golfer.
Since then,
all he has found is success. As a youngster, Mickelson won 34 San Diego County
junior titles. He went on to Arizona State University and became a four-time All-American
(just one of three in NCAA history) and a three-time NCAA champion. His '89 NCAA
title made him just the fourth freshman to win the tournament. In 1990 he won
both the NCAA Championship and U.S. Amateur, a feat achieved by just two others,
Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
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Current
Champion -
Phil Mickelson | Mickelson
will defend his Mercedes Championships title when the tournament moves to Kapalua's
Plantation Course Jan. 7-10, 1999. The Mercedes Championships is the PGA Tours
elite, limited-field season-opening tournament featuring winners from the previous
year.
Since joining the PGA Tour in 1992, Mickelson has won at least
one tournament each year for a total of 13 titles. His conquest in the 1991 Northern
Telecom Open represented the first tour win by an amateur since Scott Verplank
in 1985.
Mickelson's 1991 and '95 wins in the Northern Telecom Open
marked the first time a player had won the same event as an amateur and professional.
With a win at the 1997 Bay Hill Invitational, Michelson became the fourth youngest
player to reach ten victories, trailing legends Horton Smith, Jack Nicklaus and
Gene Sarazen.
"Winning tournaments is important to me. That's what
we all play for," Mickelson said. "I've worked hard to get where I am."
Mickelson certainly knows how to handle final-round pressure as well.
Last year he held off Mark O'Meara and Tiger Woods by a stroke to win the Mercedes
Championships, shooting steady rounds of 68-67-68-68-271, for a total of 17 under
par. It was Mickelson's second Mercedes victory, having also won the tournament
in 1994.
"It meant a great deal to me to win the Mercedes Championships
for a second time," said Mickelson, 28, of Scottsdale, Ariz. "One of
my goals each year is to get off to a good start and win early. Doing so at the
first event of the year against all the previous year's winners is a great boost
to your confidence and momentum to have a good year."
The talented
lefty, who is a natural right-hander, chalked up his 13th PGA Tour title in the
rain-delayed AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by firing a final-round 67 for
a 202 total. Including back-to-back second-place finishes at the Sprint International
and World Series of Golf the weeks following his Pebble Beach win, Mickelson posted
nine top-10 finishes and completed the year sixth on the money list with a career-high
$1,837,246 in earnings. He has never finished outside the top 30 in season earnings
since turning pro.
In 1998 he qualified for his third Presidents Cup
team, and he twice has played for the US in the Ryder Cup.
Mickelson
is looking forward to competing for the first time at Kapalua's Plantation Course.
"If the Mercedes Championships had to move, Hawaii is certainly a good choice,"
he said. "It's one of my favourite places to visit and play golf. I've heard
a lot of great things about the golf course. It should be a great week of golf."
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