TOUR Insider: Huge week ahead for Mickelson

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Phil Mickelson, the No. 2 player in the world, and, thus, by extension, the lead character in the passion play that is the Playoffs for the FedExCup now that Tiger Woods is on the injured list, has a busy week ahead of him --- and an important one, too.

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Phil Mickelson is fourth in the Playoff standings.

Inside the Numbers

Phil Mickelson's last five PGA TOUR starts

Date Event Finish 6/15/08 U.S. Open T18 7/20/08 British Open T19 8/03/08 Bridgestone Invitational T4 8/10/08 PGA Championship T7 8/24/08 The Barclays T19

• Mickelson's complete 2008 results, click here

Mickelson is the defending champion at the second Playoff event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, which begins Friday at the TPC Boston in suburban Norton, Mass. He began the Playoffs second to Kenny Perry, and fell back to fourth after his tie for 19th at The Barclays.

He finished his work at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. with a final-round 4-under-par 67, which might be just the boost he needs to get back on the winning trail. Mickelson hasn't won a tournament since the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

"It was a good round and it gives me some momentum to carry over into [this] week," Mickelson, 38, said at Ridgewood. "I thought this was a great event, though. ... It's a wonderful course here at Ridgewood, but for me personally, I need to [shoot] a bit lower."

Perhaps returning to TPC Boston, where he shot a closing 66 and 16-under 268 total to hold off a trio of contenders, including Woods, will be of assistance. "It's always great to come back to a place where you've had success, especially at a top-flight tournament like the Deutsche Bank," he said. "You'll see a number of cases where players win multiple times on the same course and I'd love to do it again at the TPC Boston.

"I love the design and I love the setup," added Mickelson, twice a winner in 2008 to bring his career victory total to 34. "I love the way the greens are designed, the way the rough cut so you can actually play shots. And the greens were so perfect that you felt you could make a lot of putts. I certainly made a decent amount of par-saving putts as well as some birdie putts. It's a wonderful tournament site for us."

If Mickelson, who is spending this week's extra day off visiting former President George H.W. Bush in Maine, wants to rediscover last year's magic formula, he'll have to adjust to yet more changes to the layout Arnold Palmer designed and which was upgraded by Gil Hanse and Brad Faxon in 2006 and '07. The changes did not alter the yardage of the par-71 course that measures 7,207 yards, but they did enhance the course's upgraded character.

"What we did do was take out some holes in some areas that we thought were still kind of more in the mode of the old golf course before the changes," said TPC Boston General Manager Brad Williams. "We wanted to add interest to those and continue to create some of some congruency throughout the golf course in terms of architecture and interest to play."

For starters, chocolate drop mounds and a bunker were added to the right side of the ninth fairway that enhance the visual properties of the hole. Changes were made to the chipping areas around No. 1 and No. 10 greens. Bunkers also were altered in shape at the fourth and 11th holes. At the latter, a 230-yard par-3, and island of turf was installed in the middle of the large front-right bunker.

"We're very, very positive about these changes, feel great about them," Williams said. "We don't feel they're going to play a significant role in the tournament in this year's championship, but we once again feel they're really going to add some interest to the golf course and make the players think a little bit more, which those of you familiar with Gil's work, always one of his goals is to make the players think a little bit around the golf course, and we think we've continued to add some things to do that."

Worth knowing

• Vijay Singh has to be licking his chops this week. Winner of The Barclays and the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational, Singh won the 2004 Deutsche Bank Championship, and in '06 he finished second to Tiger Woods, who, of course, is not in the field.

• Just 13 men in this week's field have never before played in the Deutsche Bank Championship, but some of them are names not to be overlooked, including Ernie Els, Paul Casey and Scott Verplank. Two players have won the event in their first appearance: Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson.

• Reversing course on his intention to play this week in Boston, Justin Rose instead has decided to stay in Europe and compete in the Johnnie Walker Championship in Scotland to ensure that he remains among the 10 players who received automatic berths on the Europeans Ryder Cup team. "It's only money -- you can't take it with you," Rose told reporters after finishing 34th at the KLM Open in Holland.

• Rose is among five players who qualified for the Deutsche Bank Championship who are not playing this week. The others are Woods, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Alex Cejka. Cejka re-aggravated a wrist injury and has not played since the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open. He would have gone to Boston in the 120th and final spot -- just 80 points ahead of Brad Adamonis, a Rhode Island native who would have loved being in the field.

• Four of the five Deutsche Bank winners demonstrated good play at the PGA Championship prior to excelling at the TPC Boston. Two won the PGA first -- Woods and Singh. Two others, Scott and Mickelson, finished in the top 25 in the PGA.

• Tracking the scoring in relation to the evolution of the TPC Boston, we find that players averaged 71.017 strokes in 2005 and combined to average 72.614 in '06. Last year, the field improved to 70.735. That made it the 36th hardest course out of the 55 used in 2007. It placed seventh among TPC tracks.