Mickelson may not win but he's sure to be entertaining

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- No matter what happens at the Masters this week, it shouldn't be hard to find Phil Mickelson. He'll be the guy right in the middle of things, set to win at one moment, ready to fall apart the next.

On Sunday, Mickelson might well end up with the green jacket he came so close to winning last year. The chances are just as good he'll four-putt the 14th green to blow yet another major.

It won't always be pretty, but it should be entertaining. The way Mickelson has been careening around the course lately, that's almost guaranteed.

"I feel I should have a chance on Sunday," Mickelson said. "Past that, it's hard to tell."

The player stuck with the dreaded "best to never win a major" label is showing an almost steely resolve to break through on a course where most -- including Mickelson -- believe he has his best chance to win.

If he does, he'll do it his way, slashing and burning through Augusta National while others tiptoe their way around the newly lengthened course.

"Phil Mickelson's nature is Phil Mickelson's nature," Greg Norman said. "You can't change that."

That was evident Tuesday at Augusta National when Mickelson gave terse answers to some questions at a news conference, declined to answer others, and tried to put his increasingly desperate quest to win a major on his own terms.

He's 31 and has won 20 times on the PGA Tour -- with seven of those coming in the last two years. He's also aware that those wins mean little when he comes to defining great players.

"He's a very good player right now. But you've got to win a major to be a great player," Jack Nicklaus said. "Only great players win majors.

Mickelson didn't feel much like talking Tuesday about his frustration in majors -- two of which ended last year with him walking across the green to congratulate the winner.

About the only thing Mickelson did want to talk about was his putting -- and then only to chastise people for making too much of his five-putt at The Players Championship last month and a four-putt while in contention last week at the BellSouth.

Both came under Augusta-like conditions, on slick and undulating greens similar to what Mickelson and 88 others will face beginning Thursday.

"When you putt on greens that are this slick, it's very difficult, and I certainly don't expect anybody to understand or relate to how it is because nobody will ever play on greens that are this hard and this fast," Mickelson said. "It's just the way the golf courses are and there's not much you can do about it."

Mickelson was leading both The Players Championship and the BellSouth before finding misfortune on the greens. A week before The Players Championship, he sealed a loss to Tiger Woods by hitting it into the water on the 16th hole at Bay Hill from an impossible lie.

The suggestion that he was playing too aggressively led Mickelson to vow never to change, regardless of the consequences.

"I may never win a major that way, but it doesn't matter to me," he said last month. "That's how I play my best golf."

Norman, who knows a little something about being too aggressive, said Mickelson shouldn't change.

"I probably would have won more tournaments if I wasn't that way, but you know what, I would not be the same guy as I am right now," Norman said. "I enjoy being the person I am because of who I am. And Phil is the same way."

In Norman's case, that meant blowing a seven-shot lead in the final round to lose the 1996 Masters to Nick Faldo.

Mickelson hasn't been that dramatic, but his chances to win last year ended with a three-putt bogey on No. 16 after his tee shot on the par-3 landed too far right.

He ended up three shots behind playing partner Woods, disappointed but pleased with the way he had contended.

"I thought I played pretty well for the most part," Mickelson said. "The only shot that I would want over again was the shot on 16. That was the only shot I would have liked to have done over."

Mickelson had a chance to win last year in the PGA Championship, too, but another three-putt and a scrambling par by David Toms left him without a major once again.

Mickelson insists he's having fun. The look on his face after his disappointments says something else.

"To have given myself that many opportunities in the last year and a half was something that I desperately wanted to try to do to improve my game," he said. "I've really enjoyed the opportunities to be in contention and try to win golf tournaments."

Mickelson, of course, has plenty of time left to win a major. He may never have a better time than this week to win the Masters, though.

Mickelson acknowledges as much. He's gained experience in playing in nine previous Masters, and the alterations made to the course favor him and a handful of other long hitters.

"If I'm patient one of these years I'm going to break through," he said.