Phil Mickelson in Position to Repeat at the Shell Houston Open

Published: 31^st Mar 12 9:20 am

by Carl Conrad
Carl Conrad

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Phil Mickelson in Position to Repeat at the Shell Houston Open

Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

It is becoming evident that Phil Mickelson feels very comfortable at the Redstone Golf Course in Humble, TX. Mickelson is the defending champion at the Shell Houston Open, which is played annually at Redstone the week before the Masters. Going into the weekend, “Lefty” has put himself in prime position to repeat, posting a score of 9 under par and sitting 2 shots behind leaders Brian Davis and Louis Oosthuizen after play was completed Friday. Mickelson posted a first round 65, which he followed up with a 70 in the second round.

Success at the Shell Houston Open does not necessarily guarantee success at the Masters in the subsequent week, however. This is something of which Phil is all too well aware. Last year Mickelson started out slow, shooting 70 in the first 2 rounds at Redstone. Something clicked for him over the weekend, though, and he shot 63 and 65 to post a final score of 20 under par to win by 3 strokes. The weekend performance had Phil brimming with confidence, but that confidence did not help him a great deal at the Masters the following week. He failed to break 70 in any of his 4 rounds at the Masters, finishing a disappointing T27 at 1 under par.

The Shell Houston Open has seen a resurgence in the field over the last few years as it has tried to replicate some of the conditions the players will see at Augusta National for the Masters. Redstone obviously has zero chance to recreate the aura and mystique that surrounds Augusta National, but it can recreate some of the playing conditions, thereby giving players an ample opportunity to ramp up for the PGA Tour’s first major of the year. Redstone has tried to give players some of the same shot shapes that they will see at the Masters, as well as getting the greens to roll much faster than usual and shaving down the banks along the greens and water hazards.

Just like any professional athlete focuses on the task immediately at hand, I’m sure Mickelson is not going through his rounds thinking about how he is going to play Augusta next week. At the same time, however, Redstone has just the players a service by doing as much as they can to get their games ready for Augusta. Barring a major collapse, Mickelson should be able to finish the Shell Houston Open and head to the Masters brimming with confidence, once again. The only question is whether or not his game will respond better than it did in 2011.

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