Mickelson thrives in Presidents Cup's team format

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Mickelson is the only player to have competed in every Presidents Cup.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Bill Haas was in sixth grade in 1994 when Phil Mickelson played in the first Presidents Cup. His father, Jay, in fact, was one of Lefty's teammates that year.

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Fast forward some 18 years later. We're at Royal Melbourne for the ninth renewal of the Presidents Cup and this time Bill Haas is on the U.S. Team. His father is an assistant captain.

And, you guessed it, Mickelson, now 41 years young, is still going strong -- playing in his ninth straight Presidents Cup and 17th consecutive international team competition overall.

Bill Haas, for one of many, is impressed. He has won three times over the last two years, including the season-ending TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, which also brought him the FedExCup. But he still needed one of Fred Couples' Captain's Picks to make his first American team. Not so with the ageless Mickelson, who counts four majors among his 39 PGA TOUR wins.

"It just shows you his longevity of being that good," Bill Haas said. "... I felt like I had a great year and obviously capped it off with a huge win at the end but even before that, it was one of my better years and I didn't make the team on points. So he's had a better year than that every year for the last 18 years -- which shows me how good he is and shows me how much work I have to do if I want to get to that level.

"This week, being here, puts a lot of things in perspective like how good these guys are and it's an honor to be playing with them and against them week-in and week-out. It humbles you but also fires you up to get better."

Couples says Mickelson is "one of my assistant captains, even though he's on the team." Although the veteran says he hasn't thought about it, Mickelson is a lock to captain his own Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup team down the road -- that is, if he ever stops playing, and that doesn't appear to be near on the horizon.

"I really enjoy it," Mickelson said simply. "I enjoy the team events. I enjoy the relationships that are involved. I enjoy the match play format, and I enjoy playing Four-ball and Foursomes. These are events that I've come to really appreciate and enjoy and look forward to."

Mickelson, who will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame next May, is the only player to have competed in every Presidents Cup. Only Vijay Singh, who fell just shy of making his ninth International Team this year, has played more matches, and Lefty, who trails by two, will pass the big Fijian this year. His 15 wins put him third all-time, three behind the leader Tiger Woods.

On the golf course, Mickelson always, always, goes down swinging. Robert Allenby, who played for the International Team in that first Presidents Cup, remembers Mickelson, then a fresh-faced 24 and already a four-time winner on the PGA TOUR, as "very flamboyant, a pretty exciting player to watch" as he went 2-1-2 in his debut.

"He was obviously one of the young guns then, and he still is a fantastic player," said Allenby, who will partner with Retief Goosen and take on Mickelson and Jim Furyk in Thursday's Foursomes. "He was exciting. He really brought a lot of life to that event."

That said, Mickelson's go-for-broke style hasn't always translated into team success. In fact, he played five matches in 2003 and didn't win a single one. Interestingly, he has a winning record in both team formats but is 2-3-3 overall in Singles.

Win or lose, though, Mickelson's demeanor doesn't change.

"A couple of things I've noticed about Phil," said Jay Haas, a teammate twice and assistant captain two times, as well. "No. 1, each time I've been around him in one of these events, he's become more and more of a leader in different ways, but always very positive. But the other thing is, I've seen him very high and very low and he's been very consistent in all of those situations. Meaning, he's been very, very positive, all about the team.

"I've been with him when he didn't play very well in this event, and he couldn't have been any more gracious, any more positive with the other players. He's a class guy and I think that bodes well for the young guys to see that and to know that here is a guy who has been here now 18 times, if that's the way he's acting, then they would follow suit."

The affable lefthander gets an increasingly rare chance to play with a veteran in Furyk, a man as steady as Mickelson is bold, for his first match on Thursday. In the recent past, Mickelson has been called upon to partner Presidents Cup rookies like Anthony Kim and Sean O'Hair just as veterans like Corey Pavin and Tom Lehman brought him along so many years ago.

Mickelson is the heart-and-soul of the team room, too, competitive to the nth-degree. Maybe his greatest gift, though, is his inclusive nature. Assistant captain John Cook says his enthusiasm for this biennial event has rubbed off on the U.S. Team's four rookies.

"He has made some really interesting and fun comments to show that he is part of this big unit," Cook said. "... I think the young guys, when you see those guys relax and confident and wanting to be here and part of this, I think it puts a little bit of ease in the mind of the younger guys ... and Phil exudes that. He brings that into the team room. He brought it on to the bus this morning."

Bill Haas agreed. "None of it's fake with Phil. He wears everything on his sleeve. He seems to be the most talkative in the team room, more than anyone else. It doesn't matter who it is, he'll chat it up with you. it doesn't matter who it is, he'll play you in ping-pong.

"He's been surprising, I guess. I was expecting him to maybe more to himself and all that -- not for any reason. But because he's Phil Mickelson. He's older. He's been here, his 18th, or whatever, this is my first, why would he care to hang out but he does. He seems to hang out with everybody."