It was a Sunday southpaw clash in the final round of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic and the man they call Lefty rose triumphant.
Playing in his second PGA Tour Champions event in the wake of winning his presentation back in August, Mickelson outdueled individual Masters champion Mike Weir at Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course in Richmond, winning the 54-hole event at 17 under after an amazing 7-under 65 in the last round. Each of the three rounds were played toward the end of the week because of over the top rain on Friday.
The 50-year-old senior circuit rookie entered Sunday play three strokes behind Weir and got off to a hot beginning, making birdie on four of his initial seven holes. He made a one-shot lead on the standard 3 13th with a standard after Weir made bogey and stretched out the lead to two with a birdie on No. 15. A tap-in birdie on No. 16 moved him to 16 under for the competition and Lefty never thought back, finishing his week with a birdie on No. 18.
“It’s fun for me to come out here and play well and this is a good start for me as I try to build a little bit of momentum heading to Augusta in about a month,” said Mickelson. “I put a new driver into play this week, trying to get a little more pop, a little more carry. It was a little wayward at times, but it was also effective in allowing me to play this course the way I wanted to, which was aggressively. So there were some good things that came of it, and I also identified some areas I’ve got to work on. All in all, it was a really fun, successful week.”
Mickelson joins Bruce Fleisher and Jim Furyk as the only players to win their initial two beginnings on the senior tour. Furyk did so recently.
“I have a lot of fun playing out here because I can play aggressive, I can get away with a couple of misses and I can play the way I like to play and see a lot of the guys I haven’t seen in a while,” said Mickelson of his time on the PGA Tour Champions. “Mike Weir, we played college golf together and so it’s fun to go head to head and play. And then to play a little bit more attacking style, I really enjoy that.”
Weir completed second at 14 under, trailed by Paul Goydos in third at 13 under. Brandt Jobe and Berhand Langer completed T-4 at 12 under.
“Yeah, I played well enough to win, I just didn’t putt good enough. I putted terrible today,” said Weir after his round. “But Phil played great, and I knew I was going to have to shoot a good score to win and my putter was just poor.”
