Monday, Oct. 13, 2003 | 9:57 a.m.
Looking for a reason why the biggest name in the Las Vegas Invitational not only didn't win, but hasn't won all year?
Then look no further than the par-5 third hole at the TPC at Summerlin.
On the periphery of the leaderboard as he played the 492-yard hole Sunday, long-hitting Phil Mickelson not only had a chance to pick up a stroke but an opportunity to begin mounting a charge -- if there was going to be one.
But to both the amusement and dismay of the good-sized crowd that was following him, Mickelson played the hole ... well, so Mickelsonish.
Ranked, statistically, as the fourth-longest driver on the PGA Tour, Mickelson boomed one off the tee. But in terms of accuracy Mickelson isn't the fourth-best driver on the tour and his first shot at No. 3 sailed into a clump of six trees alongside the right edge of the fairway.
From there the stylish, graceful, elegant and almost debonair Mickelson met the challenge of extracting the ball, winging a 6-iron not only out of the trees and over a ravine that fronts the green but, as everyone would see a few minutes later, over the green itself by just a few feet.
"Attaboy, Phil," several in the gallery called out as Mickelson showed his bravery with a gutsy, far-from-conservative shot.
Next, he did what he does best: Lob a chip close to the pin, the ball landing softly and rolling 4 feet past the cup.
"That was so sweet," a man following the famed left-hander said to a friend.
But then Mickelson did what he has done all too often, not only this year but throughout his career: He missed the short putt, the ball failing to even glance the hole as it skirted a foot or so by.
It was a par but not a tidy one, and it stood in contrast to the birdies that his playing partners -- former LVI champions Bill Glasson (1997) and Billy Andrade (2000) -- picked up by playing the hole more traditionally, as both kept the ball in the fairway, reached the green with their second shots and two-putted for a circle.
Stoic yet obviously disappointed, Mickelson marched on to the fourth tee but his round was figuratively over. On a day and on a course where you had to go low to contend, he merely played out the string en route to a 68 that left him 23 under par and eight strokes out of a playoff in a tournament eventually won on the first extra hole by the painfully deliberate Stuart Appleby.
For only the second time in the past 11 years, Mickelson may go through a season without a win. And in a year in which lesser lights such as Mike Weir, Shaun Micheel and Ben Curtis won majors, the so-called "greatest player to never win a major" was shut out again.
Ask 100 golf fans for one thing they'd like to witness and the majority's response would be "to see Mickelson win a major." But it didn't happen this year even though his arch-rival, Tiger Woods, wasn't his usual dominant self and even though Mickelson has 21 career victories and is the second leading money winner in the history of the sport.
If he ever does win a major, the golf world will go bananas. Mickelson, 33, is an extremely popular player and there's an element of sympathy as a backdrop as he tries and fails, tries and fails, in the big events.
But this year has been one big letdown for Lefty, as Mickelson has made good money while failing to contend for any sort of championship. He has no top-3 finishes, something many of us thought he might rectify this week in Las Vegas.
The seventh-leading money winner in the history of the tournament, Mickelson -- who is a right-hander in everything but golf -- kept his scores in the 60s this week en route to finishing in a tie for ninth.
He was nine strokes behind the fourth-rounder leader, Appleby, at the start of Sunday's play, which made it implausible that he could win. Yet he could have made it interesting and those who were following him were hoping he would at least make it entertaining, but the mishap at No. 3 -- and another at No. 14 when he missed a similar putt -- kept Mickelson among the also-rans.
Short putts have always been his bugaboo, although the apologists who man the TV booths rarely if ever broach the subject. Mickelson, for all of his strengths and talents, may be the worst short putter in history for a man who otherwise plays the game of golf so well.
It's a distinction he may never be able to overcome.
"That was typical," one man said to another as Mickelson came off the green at No. 3, this great player's single shortcoming known all too well by those who follow the sport.
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