One way or another, Phil Mickelson has bright chances of making it to the US Ryder Cup team
For the last few weeks, the golf fans are desperately waiting for Phil Mickelson to do something on the field. He has not been able to impress his fans since he tied for the seventh position at the HP Byron Nelson Championship in June this year.
Right after that, he withdrew from the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance, following a 79 in the opening round.
The US Open saw him take the share of the 65th position, followed by two missed cuts in the Greenbrier Classic and The Open Championship.
As a result, he dropped down to the seventh spot in the US Ryder Cup team standings. According to the US team qualification criteria, a player must rank among the top-eight players in the Ryder Cup standing in order to get an automatic entry in the event.
Otherwise, one will have to rely on four wild card entries to be awarded by Davis Love III, captain for the US team.
Therefore, Mickelson needs to think seriously about his current form on the PGA Tour if he wants an automatic entry in the US team.
Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Brandt Snedeker, Dustin Johnson, Steve Stricker, Bo Van Pelt and Jim Furyk are the players who are currently listed out of the top-8 and under the top-15 in the standings.
All the above mentioned players are eager to take Lefty’s place, as no one wants to take a chance of relying on captain’s picks.
If the American loses his place in the top-eight at the end of the final date of the qualification, will he succeed in earning Love’s favour in the form of a captain’s pick?
The answer is very obvious - Yes!
There is no doubt that the expected US team line-up looks really solid. Still, it lacks veteran players. Mickelson and Stricker have great chances to be selected as the picks because of their immense experience in the game.
Someone might argue, why Mickelson when he is struggling badly. In such conditions, an example from Tiger Woods’ career best explains the current situation.
In 2010, he was having the worst time of his career and was selected for the US Ryder Cup team as a captain’s pick. In the end, he proved his captain’s decision right after setting the best score of 3-1-0, shared with Stricker, in the 2010 Ryder Cup.
Therefore, Mickelson has all that it takes to be a great golfer and he can make a comeback at any moment of the game.
When he started the 2012 PGA Tour season, he tied for the 49th position at the Humana Challenge, followed by a missed cut in the Farmers Insurance Open. The Waste Management Phoenix Open witnessed him take a share of the 26th position on the leaderboard.
Thereafter, he made a strong comeback with a win in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, followed by a second-place finish at the Northern Trust Open.
Right after that, he once again made a couple of bad finishes in the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational.
However, his bad form did not last long, as he tied for the fourth and third position at the Shell Houston Open and Masters Tournament, respectively.
Currently, he is once again going through a bad patch of his 2012 season campaign but is likely to stun his rivals in any of the upcoming events. If not that, he still has bright chances of making it to the Ryder Cup team through Love’s vote.
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