Monday Pin Placement: Has Phil Lost It?

Every Monday during the PGA Tour season, Monday Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend's action, with a little commentary mixed in. We'll focus on what you may have missed while you were out grinding on the putting green.

Phil Mickelson Struggles Again -- There is no reason to get totally riled up and make the assumption that Mickelson has gone the way of Ernie Els. Mickelson is still ranked fourth in the world and is a threat to catch fire and burn up future installments of this column. But the idea still has to be brought up: Phil Mickelson could be losing his luster.

Last week at the Buick Invitational, a tournament Mickelson has won three times, Phil opened with a two-under 70 on the tougher South Course, before reeling off rounds of 72-73-75 to make it two straight weeks Lefty hasn't been a factor. At all.

It is early in '09 and Phil obviously has time to turn it around, but the question is simple: Have Mickelson's best days come and gone?

I know the arguments against it. He is only 38, and some people hit their strides (hello Kenny Perry) in their 40s. But the problem with that thinking is twofold.

First, Mickelson has already accomplished a ton. While many (including myself) believe Phil has underachieved in his career, he still has three major championship titles, 34 total PGA Tour victories, and one of the more impressive amateur careers ever. Secondly, the guy is extremely devoted to his family. He loves his wife and kids and enjoys spending time with them to such a degree that he is quick to pick family over golf (best example, the 1999 U.S. Open when, in the final group with eventual champion Payne Stewart, Phil had a beeper in his bag and said if his wife went into labor and paged him, he'd leave the course that instant). While this obviously isn't a bad thing, it calls into question his motivation at this point, as he's always seemed more interested in congealing his family than in dealing with all the "second best" chatter.

On top of all of that, and perhaps more importantly, Phil's short game isn't what it once was. On the sixth hole at Torrey Pines on Sunday, Phil had a four-putt and he currently stands 143rd in putting average and 135th in putts per round (by comparison, he didn't finish in the top-20 last year in either category).

From 2005 to '07, Phil had nine victories, including two major championships. Since then, he's won twice and hasn't really been a factor in the big four.

With the PGA struggling with all of this economic turmoil, the last thing it needs is one of the Big Two to lose his luster. Tiger Woods will be back soon. Can we expect the same from Lefty?

Nick Watney Impresses -- The story of Nick Watney is pretty insane. The guy is basically the Gilbert Arenas of the PGA Tour, landing a whopping one total scholarship offer from a university to play golf, only to decline the scholarship to play golf for his uncle at Fresno State.

His talents began to develop, he made huge strides and ended up as a three-time All-American, then went on to win as a professional on the Canadian, Nationwide and PGA Tours. His second career victory came Sunday at the Buick Invitational, where Watney drained an absolute snake from about 60 feet on the 16th hole, and then made a routine birdie on the 18th for the win, beating John Rollins by a shot.

Pretty good for a kid that couldn't sniff a team golf bag as a high-school senior.

Camilo Becoming A Star? Before last year, Camilo Villegas was known as the guy that likes to, uh, air hump the green (how else would you describe it?) when he reads putts. After his two wins late in the season to nearly steal the FedEx Cup from Vijay Singh and his start to '09, Villegas might be the rising star people assumed he would be after leaving the University of Florida.

Villegas was quoted as saying that missing the cut at the FBR Open really bothered him, and what better way to come back than to finish two shots off the lead at the Buick with a solid opportunity to win? Sometimes it isn't your week to win, and Torrey Pines wasn't going to let Villegas take the trophy. But you can't fault Camilo. He hit beautiful putt after beautiful putt that either rolled the lip, lipped out or just snuck by the hole, including the eagle putt on the 18th that would have added a little more pressure to Watney's birdie attempt.

Villegas has the look, and now his game is coming around.

Final Round Handshakes ...

-- As you've probably heard 500 times on Monday, Tiger and wife Elin had their second child on Sunday, a boy named Charlie Axel. I couldn't imagine anything more appropriate than "Axel Woods" finding his name on the Wanamaker Trophy in 2029.

--There were 15 Australians in the field at the Buick, but the two that finished in the top six might not ring a bell. Matt Jones, who played at Arizona State, closed with the round of the day on Sunday with an eight-under 64 to jump 31 spots. Matthew Goggin finished a shot behind Jones, his best tournament of the year.

--The "win and you're in the Masters" rule that they brought back makes every win on the tour even more sweet. I can't think of a rule that needed to be brought back more than that one.