sport golf mastersaugusta 8439425 ----- # The Masters 2011: Partisan army of fans fails to lift American idol Phil Mickelson up the charts ## Phil Mickelson is Mr America, a force of nature who can command this Georgia garden purely by virtue of his easy gait and gawky grin. The ardour with which his devotees want to see him clad in a fourth green jacket tomorrow night is almost palpable. ![Phil Mickelson][1] Struggling: Phil Mickelson could only shoot an even-par 72 on the second day Photo: GETTY IMAGES [![Oliver Brown][2]][3] By [Oliver Brown][4] 9:22PM BST 08 Apr 2011 [Follow Oliver Brown on Twitter][5] [Comments][6] Walking a round with Mickelson, it becomes plain that he draws such admiration from his image as Tiger Woods's antithesis. The mutual enmity between the two most gifted players of their generation is one of golf's great smouldering subtexts. It is not as if Mickelson has not tried. Indeed, the Californian's animus towards Woods is understood to be far less pronounced than vice versa. He suffers, it seems, from persistent accusations of being a phoney, that while he signs autographs for 45 minutes after every round, he laps up the public affection with a little too much self-satisfaction. Such claims seem, to judge by his conduct at Augusta, grossly unfair. Mickelson can ascribe his uniform popularity to the fact that he is so much more visibly appreciative of his fans than Woods. An extra incentive to prevail this year is that he could become only the fourth man to win four **[Masters][7]** titles, after Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer -- and a certain T Woods. The humid air yesterday was still thick with the memory of what Mickelson accomplished on this stage 12 months ago, haring to victory on the strength of possibly the greatest shot ever struck, and into the arms of tearful wife Amy. They lingered long in their embrace by the 18th green, the thoughts of her battle against breast cancer suspended for a second by the unalloyed joy of that April Sunday. ## Related Articles * [Final round as it happened][8] 10 Apr 2011 * [McIlroy leads after magnificent 65][9] 07 Apr 2011 * [Fisher and McIlroy set Masters pace][10] 07 Apr 2011 * [Donald wins par-3 event][11] 06 Apr 2011 * [Augusta in thrall to evergreens][12] 06 Apr 2011 * [Mickelson: No concerns over fitness][13] 05 Apr 2011 Whatever else Mickelson achieves here, he will always have reminders of 2010 close at hand. Then, he reached a state as close to perfection as is feasible on a golf course. This time, the task must be approached with a pragmatic mind. Mickelson does not bring his finest game into this tournament, having failed to win an event all year before last week's Houston Open, and yesterday his patience was tested in a fluctuating round of 72. Mickelson at Augusta can be a far deadlier beast than the tame creature that occasionally turns up for regular tour events, yet he appears to be struggling to bare his teeth this time around. No sooner had he made his first incursion, moving to three under par, than a clumsy misjudgement on a chip into the third green put him back a stroke. One weapon was inescapable: his distance. Mickelson has undergone treatment on his back in an effort to enhance his rotational speed -- in other words, he has been freed up to thrash the living daylights out of every drive. The trick is working, if his approach to the second was any gauge. Flicking the switch to full-bore, he launched the ball nearly 100 yards past poor Geoff Ogilvy to set up an easy tap-in birdie. Mickelson is never easily satisfied. Reacting to his first-round 70, which could have had a cleaner look but for a bogey at the 18th, he said: "It's OK, just OK. I didn't shoot myself out of it but I didn't make up ground on the field the way I wanted to. I scrambled well today to stay in, but I also let four or five good birdie chances slide. I'm going to have to capitalise on those opportunities tomorrow if I'm going to go low." The ageless grace of his short game was in ample evidence, especially at the eighth, where -- in scenes reminiscent of the tremendous six-iron from the woods by the 13th to win last year -- he fired an escape from the pine straw, on to the green. When faced with his all-or-nothing shot at the 13th the previous year, he knew that he had to trust his swing. With the support of Jim "Bones" Mackay, his faithful long-time caddie, the gamble paid off with interest. Under pressure at a major, it was surely among the finest strokes of inspiration ever contrived. In typical Mickelson fashion, he missed the putt for Eagle, but the impact of that one shot was enough to bury all competition. After such a performance, his scrambling capabilities should never be in question. But this weekend it would appear he might need them, given that on Thursday he found fewer fairways than anyone else in the 99-player field. With his characteristic contrary streak, Mickelson picked up a birdie at the 10th, rarely deemed one of Augusta's straightforward holes. But by uncoiling himself with such commitment into each shot, he was losing control. The best that could be said of his handling of the 13th is that the tee-shot did not, unlike in his opening round, sail into the woods. Instead the ball was nestled in the right-hand rough, sitting up. From there, he proceeded to hit his approach into the swale behind the green and forfeit any prospect of a birdie four. An agonising putt, sneaking under the cup, heightened his frustration at the 16th. Another wild drive into the pines thwarted him on the next hole, and it was all Mickelson could do to close with a four for an even-par 72. To his dismay, the essential ground had not been gained. [X][14] Share & bookmark Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz [What are these?][15] * Share: [Share][14] [ ][16] [ ][17] [Tweet][18] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/mastersaugusta/8439425/The-Masters-2011 -Partisan-army-of-fans-fails-to-lift-American-idol-Phil-Mickelson-up-the- charts.html Telegraph ## [The Masters][7] * ### [Sport »][19] * ### [Golf »][20] * ### [Oliver Brown »][3] In sport [![The Masters 2011: after the choke][21] ][22] ### [After the choke][22] [![][23] ][24] ### [The Masters: final round][24] [![The Masters 2011: Rory McIlroy is a carefree dreamer with the golf world at his feet][25] ][26] ### [Collapse worse than Norman's][26] [![][27]][28] ### [Montgomerie's course guide][28] [X][14] Share & bookmark Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! 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