ESTABLISHMENT
AGE: 40
YEARS ON TOUR: Mickelson is in his 19th season on the PGA TOUR. He has won 39 times, including three Masters and one PGA Championship.
OVERVIEW: Mickelson signaled his promise when he won the 1991 Northern Telecom Open, beating Tom Purtzer by a stroke, while still a student at Arizona State—about five months after he won the U.S. Amateur. His first two wins as a professional came in 1993 and Mickelson has been prolific winner ever since. In 19 full seasons on TOUR, he has only gone winless in two. Granted, his first major championship proved elusive, but Mickelson finally broke through in his 42nd start when he won the 2004 Masters. Few players are as beloved as Mickelson, who revealed that he now suffers from psoriatic arthritis at last year’s PGA. That came a little more than a year after his wife Amy and mother Mary were diagnosed with breast cancer. All three are doing well now, though, and Amy was waiting by the 18th hole on Sunday to see Mickelson win his third Masters last year.
HISTORY IN THIS EVENT: Mickelson has a bit of a score to settle at Quail Hollow after taking the lead into the final round a year ago only to be bypassed by Rory McIlroy and his sizzling 62 on Sunday. This is Mickelson’s eighth appearance in the tournament, and he has never missed a cut. He has five top-10 finishes and only once has he finished lower than 12th on a course that will host the 2017 PGA Championship.
OUTLOOK THIS WEEK: Obviously, Mickelson’s track record at Quail Hollow, where he is a cumulative 45 under, is impressive. The 2011 season has been a mixed bag for Mickelson, though. He finished second in San Diego in his debut and won the Shell Houston Open. But he’s only had one top-10 finish in his other nine starts, so he’ll be looking for Quail Hollow to rekindle the spark. |
|
NEW BREED
AGE: 32
YEARS ON TOUR: Watson is in his sixth full season on the PGA TOUR. His last 10 months, though, have signaled his transformation from journeyman to world-class player as he’s picked up all three of his TOUR victories.
OVERVIEW: Watson is a self-taught player who grew up in Bagdad, Fla., and attended the same high school as PGA TOUR vets Heath Slocum and Boo Weekley. Watson would draw a 5-foot circle in the dirt in his driveway and hit wiffle balls toward the target. He’d practice hitting the wiffle ball over tree limbs and under them. Watson spent three years on the Nationwide Tour before earning his card by finishing 21st on the money list. Watson really came into his own last season when he won his first PGA TOUR event—dedicating the victory to his wife Angie and his father Gerry, who was battling lung cancer and died later in the year. Two months later, he lost to Martin Kaymer in a playoff at the PGA Championship and then played on his first Ryder Cup. But the 2011 campaign has been even better as Watson has won two of his first 10 starts to shoot to the top of the FedExCup standings.
HISTORY IN THIS EVENT: Watson didn’t play Quail Hollow well early in his career—missing the cut in 2006 and ’08 while having to withdraw after three rounds in 2007. He turned things around in 2009, though, when Watson tied for second with Lucas Glover, one stroke behind Sean O’Hair. Watson followed that with a tie for 22nd last year.
OUTLOOK THIS WEEK: Watson should certainly come to Quail Hollow with confidence after his playoff win last week in New Orleans, and the course is a big-hitter’s dream. But Watson, who ranks second in driving distance with an average of 311 years, is hardly a one-dimensional player—he also leads the TOUR in greens in regulation, hitting 74.07 percent. |
