Phil Mickelson makes his 2015 season debut at this week’s Humana Challenge looking to right the wrongs of an indifferent 2014 season.
The current World No. 16 and 42-time Tour winner has spent the off-season working out with trainer Sean Cochran in a four-day-a-week program that evidently has provided a quick payoff.
Phil Mickelson looking to kick start 2015 by righting the wrongs of an indifferent 2014. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
“In the first five or six weeks I’ve had some immediate results,” said Mickelson. “I’m gettir, developing more core strength and speed and increasing my ball speed. It’s been awhile since I felt so at ease.”
Entering the year in shape is the first step to what Mickelson hopes will be a bounce-back season after a 2014 campaign that was not up to his standards.
Not only did he fail to win a tournament for the first time since 2003, he produced just one top-10 finish in 21 starts and failed to advance to the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, the final event of the FedExCup Playoffs.
“The worst year of my career,” declared Mickelson.
“It was a bad year statistically in all areas,” he added. “I didn’t drive the ball as well as I can or expected to. My short irons were worse than they’ve been in my entire career. My short game wasn’t really sharp. My putting was not at the level I expect.”
After having commenced a new season the past few years in Abu Dhabi, Mickelson is starting at the Humana and will also contest the Waste Management Phoenix Open followed by the Farmers Insurance Open.
He’ll then return home for the final two weeks of the West Coast swing, meaning he’ll miss the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for the first time in 20 years. He also will not play the Northern Trust Open for the second straight year after making seven consecutive starts at Riviera.
“Those are two of my favorite events, two of my favorites courses, but with the kids in two schools with different spring breaks I’ll take that time off,” he said.
“They’ve accommodated my schedule enough over the years. It’s time for me to accommodate theirs.”
