seals and saguaros have very little in common with dogwoods and azaleas. The Masters’ chic picks, dark horses and usual suspects don’t generally come into
sharp focus until at least the Ides of March. But this year
the lions of winter have come out roaring and unless Vijay
Singh was able to turn back the antlers of time, Brandt
Snedeker was running out of Hall of Famers to lose to at the
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. So, thanks just the
same, he’ll take a pass on seconds this time around.
First it was Tiger Woods, who technically isn’t a Hall of
Famer, but who will shortly have his own wing in the joint, at
Torrey Pines. Then it was Phil Mickelson, who stands alone
36 february 18, 2013 � GOlf WORld.cOm
Thrills and spills: A week after winning, Mickelson tumbled down the leader board but will be a Masters threat.
in golf as a case study in case studies, going one-on-one with
his friend Sneds at TPC Scottsdale. At Pebble it was Snedeker’s turn to be the pursued rather than the pursuer, and the
fast-talker from Nashville flat refused to get caught.
Sooner than is truly prudent, each result this year seems
to be viewed through the prism of what it might mean when
the gates swing open at Augusta National. If you want to
play that game, there may not be two better names than
Mickelson and Snedeker.
The last two weeks have been, well, just, so Phil, accompanied by all the customary Phil flourishes. Mickelson went
from thumbs up in Scottsdale to bottoms up, or more
precisely down, at Pebble Beach. If the zenith was the swirl-
