Phil Mickelson Surges From 6-Shot Deficit To Beat Tiger Woods At Pebble Beach

Phil Mickelson surged ahead on Sunday at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am tournament to beat Tiger Woods with a final round score of 8-under 64.

Mickelson was six shots behind Tiger but surged ahead in just six holes to pass both Woods and Charlie Wi.

Playing in the second-to-last group Mickelson won the final round against Tiger Woods by 11 shots, winning for the fourth time at Pebble Beach.

The win was also a big one for Mickelson who became just the ninth player in PGA tour history to mount 40 wins. After his victory Phil said:

“Pebble Beach … it feels awesome no matter what number it is.”

For Tiger Woods the fall was surprising as he shot a 67 in the third round and appeared poised for an easy win on Sunday. Woods however failed to make birdie on the courses easy opening stretch, making his first birdie at the par-5 sixth. Mickelson answered with a 20-foot eagle putt.

After the tournament Woods said:

“I didn’t hit it as bad as the score indicated, but I putted awful. As good as I felt on the greens yesterday, I felt bad today. Anything I tried to do wasn’t working. Consequently, I made a ton of mistakes on the green.”

What might be more troubling for Tiger Woods is the fact that he has now collapsed at two tournaments in a row, two weeks ago he entered the final round of the Abu Dhabi tournament tied for the lead with unheralded Robert Rock but ending up failing to break par, finishing in third place.

While Tiger Woods use to once be the bane of Phil Mickelson’s existence that all changed in 2007 at the Deutsche Championship and now Mickelson has posted five better final round scores while playing in the same Sunday group as Tiger Woods.