It’s bizare almost, how certain players just know how to “turn it on” or start playing their best right in time for a major championship like The Masters, which takes place next week. It had been a ho-hum year for Phil Mickelson this season until yesterday’s blistering 63 at the Shell Houston Open. Now he’s the leader of that event and he’ll be brining big time momentum to Augusta next week. It’s as well as Phil has played or looked since, honestly, last year’s Masters.
Look at the Shell Houston leader board and there are other names that stand out — Aaron Baddeley, Anthony Kim, Padraig Harrington, Steve Stricker, Robert Allenby – these are top flight players who are all playing well this week, partly because of what comes next week
That’s not to suggest that this week’s leader board should be a primer for next week’s, there are players not in the field who will no doubt be ready. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell come to mind. It’s just bizarre how Mickelson and some of the others can sense it’s time for Augusta, and all of a sudden they get their games in high gear.
Some might say that the Houston course, like Augusta, suits their games the most. It’s no secret that the Houston course sets its greens, fairways and tees up to mimic Augusta conditioning, hoping this will attract more top names for a “true” week of preparation. It will be interesting to see if Augusta continues to identify champions cut from the same cloth. The method, post-Tiger Domination, seems to be hang around from Thursday-Saturday and have a great Sunday. It worked for everyone but Greg Norman.