Last Fall, when Phil Mickelson dropped his Titleist clubs in favor of Callaway, a lot of folks were skeptical (me included). And when Mickelson didn't perform up to expectations at the Ryder Cup in the immediate aftermath of that decision, it looked like Lefty had made the wrong choice.
But after his victory at the Phoenix Open this weekend, Mickelson is feeling pretty justified:
Mickelson lies ninth in the driving distance category on the 2005 PGA Tour with an average of 301.8 yards."I actually got criticised quite a bit last year for switching equipment," added the world number four, who finally ended his major drought at Augusta last April and contended in all four majors in 2004.
"One of the things that we did in our testing, in our practice and in all these drills is to do it with different golf balls and to see which is more consistent -- accuracy off the tees, which one hit more fairways, which one was longer.
"I had to make a change, and I was very fortunate that I was in a position in a relationship with my previous company to be able to do that."
Mickelson, who set up his Phoenix triumph with an 11-under 60 in the second round and covered the final 54 holes in 19 under, believes he is playing the best golf of his life.
Hard to argue with that contention, as well as the one that Mickelson made the right call last Fall. And I made the wrong one.
