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Mickelson doesn't consider his double bogey at Winged Foot in 2006 a mistake, rather poor execution.
He had a one-shot lead when he sprayed his drive so far left that it hit off a hospitality tent, though he still had a clean lie. Then, he hit the tree and the ball bounced straight down. From there, he caught a plugged lie in the bunker left of the green, blasted out through the green and missed the chip. Geoff Ogilvy wound up winning.
"Most people look at that and think the drive was what cost me that tournament," he said. "I drove it like that the whole week. That wasn't the problem. The problem was the 3-iron off a nice lie that I cut into the tree as opposed to getting around the tree."
What hurts is that he called that week at Winged Foot the best his short game has ever been for a tournament -- that's like Woods saying it was his best week ever with the putter -- and he couldn't get his second shot near the green to rely on his chipping.
The lesson for anyone else wanting to take on the hardest shots in the most crucial situations is to practice a weakness. Mickelson refers to it as facing fear, which he figures he learned while majoring in psychology at Arizona State.
The analogy is if a person doesn't like snakes, spend more time around snakes.
"I never felt comfortable flying, so I went and got my pilot's license," he said. "I never felt comfortable with being in an awkward situation, so I took up martial arts. I just always wanted to take on my fears head-on. That's kind of the way I approach golf. If there's a shot that I don't feel comfortable with, I'll go on the range and work on it until I do, until I turn that weakness into strength.
"Where I see a lot of mistakes being made out here is people practice their strengths, and they don't take their weaknesses and turn them into strengths," he said. "It feels better to practice things you're good at, not the things you struggle at, and I've always tried to do the opposite."
Mickelson was asked if he had ever been guilty of playing not to lose. He thought for a minute, and couldn't come up with an example.
"If anything, I might go a little bit overboard the other way -- which we can all attest," he said.
[Associated Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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