Phil Mickelson: Ph.D or Phraud?

Late last week, Phil Mickelson stated that he had something special in the works for the upcoming Masters Tournament, to be held next at the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club.

“We have a special club we’re making that I’ll be hitting on Monday,” Mickelson said Friday. “So, we’ll see.”

Today, I got the inside scoop on this “special” club Phil and his Callaway friends are creating. But its uniqueness might not lay in what the club is, but how the club is used.

As most avid golf aficionados know, to excel at Augusta, you must be able to work the ball right-to-left off the tee. Crucial driving holes like 2, 9, 10 and 13 all demand a hard right-to-left ball flight in order to maximize birdie or eagle opportunities. For right-handed players, a hard right-to-left draw will land running and get that extra nudge of distance all golfers want. For Phil, though, being a lefty means on holes like this, his soft fade leaves him at a disadvantage.

“I hate not being the longest guy on those holes. My right-to-left fade just lands too soft and doesn’t run out,” Mickelson lamented today.

As Phil’s popularity has swelled over the past decade plus, Phil’s backstory has also reached the masses. Most people know that Mickelson was born right hand dominant, but learned how to golf left-handed as a way to mirror his father’s right-handed golf swing.

What most people don’t know is that Phil can also swing a pretty smooth stick from the right side of the golf ball.

“The secret club I’ve had Callaway make is a right-handed driver to compliment my strong left-handed 3 wood,” Mickelson explained to a select few reporters. “I’ll just take my normal driver out of the bag next week. We all know there have been a few guys like Notah Begay III that have putted both right and left-handed in competition, but I don’t think anyone has ever tried it on the full swing. I really think being able to rip a draw with my Calaway X-Hot driver right-handed will help me out tremendously at Augusta. This way I can hit a draw from either side of the ball, and hit it farther than everyone else. That’s what I like doing.”

Will this plan be a success for Phil as he tries to win his fourth green jacket, or will it backfire like his ill-fated attempt to play the longest U.S. Open venue in history (Torrey Pines, 2008) without any driver at all? We’ll see, indeed.

*The only quotes actually attributed to Phil Mickelson are what is contained in the second paragraph. The rest of this entry is JLD's attempt at some April Fool's day fun!