Which Phil will show up for the Masters?

If Phil Mickelson had continued his first two rounds performance on the weekend, he would have barely made the Top-20 in the Shell Houston Open.  Instead, he caught fire and equaled the course record on Saturday (63) and capped off a three-shot victory with 65 on Sunday.  The major difference in performance was putting, primarily in the critical 6 - 10 foot range.  In the first two rounds he made only 3 of 6, but increased both opportunities and results to 7 of 9 on the weekend.

Obviously it was not all about putting. Phil also exhibited several other attributes that tend to crop up in PGA Tour Winners AND will come in very handy at Augusta if he can bring them along: 

    1.  Offshore hole-outs - Phil holed three shots from off the green.  Winners more often than not have one of these not-necessarily-lucky outcomes.

    2.  Scrambling, extraordinary saves - Twice on the Par-4, 6th hole, Phil drove into the hazard, incurred a penalty stroke, but was able to save par.

     3.  Manage the downside - Phil obviously did not have his "A" game during his first two rounds but managed to steer the ship in at acceptable numbers of -2 (70) both rounds.  Just close enough to bound into the lead with one great round.  How many times have we seen Tiger do that? 

In addition to the attributes above, the winner this week at Augusta will almost surely: 

• Be a long hitter;
• Rank relatively high in GIR stats on his respective tour;
• Have already won on the PGA Tour or a Major.

Not a very long limb but let's see how I do?