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I have stated in the past that Phil Mickelson hasn’t changed his swing in any significant way in at least 25 years, no matter what he says or who he works with. What is certain is that he always has something to say about his swing, and that he is one of the best when it comes to talking himself into believing that he is doing something different and better. After studying his “new” swing (he switched teachers again) I have come to the conclusion that if he is on a “new plane” I don’t really see it, so it must be more subtle than the video camera can discern. Another certainty is that Phil is one of the most talented players in history, because if you watch his technique you have to wonder just how he hits it as good as he does as often as he does. Everybody knows he has one of the best pitching and bunker games around, and his putting, when it gets hot, is phenomenal, but the fact that at times he can absolutely stripe it is amazing considering the complications he has rooted in his release. When you watch his shaft steepen in transition, then trail while the legs wait for the club to drop down, and his hands wheel the face around to square it through the ball, you have to stand up and applaud the sheer genius of it all. There is no way he should be as good as he is, or have had the career that he has had, with his technique. Ah, but there is the rub: golf does not care about how it looks, only about how it functions. Phil knows where the club is and how to get the sweet spot on the ball, and he has been doing the same thing since he was a kid. I listened to him in person at the Masters last year talking on the range to Butch about his swing, and it was obvious that Butch had no idea what he was talking about. Indeed, the rambling monologue was incomprehensible to anyone no matter how much they knew about the swing. But God bless him: if he thinks he has a new plane and he’s going to hit it pure from now on, who’s going to tell him he’s wrong?
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