Top-20 American players to watch out for in 2012: Part-6
Mickelson finished for a joint second alongside countryman Dustin Johnson, posting his highest finish in the Open.
Despite of his trailblazing career in golf, the 41-year-old American is often regarded as the most unfortunate players on the tour, as he never soared to number one spot on the OWGR. His career was mostly overshadowed by Woods’ blistering rampage on the
PGA, where he out rightly dominated the rankings for a staggering 15 years.
Turning professional in 1992, Mickelson has almost spent two decades playing professional golf and has won major titles apart from a jaw-dropping 47 professional victories worldwide. A left-handed player by default, Mickelson has now opted for the in-vogue
belly putter and has been taking lessons from this year’s PGA Champion rookie Keegan Bradley. He is using the world renowned Odyssey Sabertooth with a White Hot XG insert.
Out of the 21 events played this year, Mickelson made the halfway cut in no fewer than 20 of them with 11 top-25 finishes. He also has seven top-ten finishes with a scoring average of 70.21 and has earned $3,763,488 in the year 2011. Mickelson has decided
to improvise lately and vows that there is enough golf left in him to last another decade. He has been facing the terrible arthritis for a long period of time and is not willing to put down his guard for the moment. His strong performance int he Open Championship
beacons to the fact that Mickelson will continue to thrash the fields in high profile events starting next year.
Hunter Mahan
Official World Golf Rankings: 19
FedExCup Rankings: 7
PGA Tour wins in 2011: 0
Mahan has been a little more than just unfortunate in the current season, when he surged to the top of the leaderboard on quite a few occasions, but failed to make it all the way to the top on the weekend. Surging to the top at the Farmers Insurance Open
in January, he had to settle for a joint sixth. He again threw himself in contention at the AT&T National the next month, finishing behind the leader for runners up. In what could have been one of the most lucrative victories of his career at the Tour Championship
with a winner’s prize share of $10-million, Mahan finished runners up yet again, trailing the leader Bill Haas. He closed the season on a high note with two consecutive top-ten finishes at the WGC-HSBC Champions and Chevron World Challenge. He also had a strong
share in the US victory in the President’s Cup.
Out of the 25 events Mahan played this year on the PGA, he missed the halfway cut only thrice, pulling in nine top-ten finishes. He failed to make the cut in three of the four major titles including the Masters, the Open Championship and the US Open and
finished for a joint 19th in the PGA Championship in Atlanta.
Tags: