Big Phil Is Accenture's Only Hope

The commercial campaign with Phil Mickelson from a few years ago that asked the open-ended question, "What will Phil do next?" is as spot-on today as it was when it came out. It seems that, thanks to his erratic play over the last two weeks, Lefty has been on a rampage to give anyone and everyone in his camp a heart attack.

After his all-over-the-place win at the Northern Trust Open last Sunday, Mickelson came to Marana, Ariz. as the second seed in the Ben Hogan bracket. Now, two days into Accenture Match Play, and many upsets later, Mickelson is the tournament's only hope of keeping the public's interest through the weekend.

That last sentence should probably come with a disclaimer. Mickelson is the tournament's only hope, yet he's still barely alive. Two days of Mickelson veering wildly between dominance and collapse have people remembering just how up and down Mickelson can be, no matter the golf course or the tournament.

On Wednesday, Mickelson was four-up on Angel Cabrera with fives holes to go and went on to lose the next four holes in succession before calming the storm on the 18th and making a birdie on the first extra hole to take down Cabrera. Thursday was much of the same, with Mickelson winning the 13th to go four-up on Zach Johnson before dropping 14, 15, and 17 to the '07 Masters champion before halving the 18th hole and winning the match.

With all the number one seeds out of the brackets (the first time in history none have advanced past the second round), including comeback kid Tiger Woods, Mickelson is basically the only name left. No more Tiger, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan, Kenny Perry or Boo Weekley means the weight is on Mickelson's shoulders to continue to advance in this tournament if the tournament directors want to keep anyone interested come Sunday.

Mickelson now faces Stewart Cink, who made it to the finals last year at this event before getting stomped by Woods, and if Mickelson can take down his fellow American, it could set up a Goliath quarterfinals meeting between Phil and Ernie Els. The South African hadn't won a match at the Accenture since 2002 prior to his first-round win on Wednesday over Soren Hansen. Now, the possibility of Mickelson vs. Els, coupled with a quarterfinals meeting that could pit Rory McIlroy and Camilo Villegas (who is arguably playing the best golf right of anyone right now) is all that is left in terms of major storylines.

While Woods' play this week can't be considered a disappointment, it will make for a tough Friday meeting between all the NBC executives (set to air the coverage over the weekend). I'm sure they were hoping for some Woods love over the weekend with sports fans everywhere glued to the television, watching Tiger.

Now, they should be hoping for a good Mickelson roller-coaster ride. It would be a pretty interesting statement if Phil wins on both the week Tiger announced he was coming back and the week he did come back. What will Phil do next? Golf fans (and executives) can only hope the answer is win, win, win.