Mickelson looks poised to successfully defend his title

It’s all about your agenda. Do you want to win a golf tournament or just prepare for one? No question there’s heavy highlighter -- green, probably -- on everyone’s calendar for the first full week of April. That’s Masters Week, the first major of the season, the annual rite of Spring that makes Spring so right in the golf world. But PGA TOUR players look ahead at their own peril. The $5.3 million BellSouth Classic begins Thursday at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Ga., a couple of miles west of Augusta. First prize is $954,000 -- a lot of green that can buy any color jacket you want. If anyone doubts that this Atlanta area stop, in its 38th year, isn’t special, just check the roll of champions, which includes Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Larry Nelson and Tom Kite among the old guard. More recent title holders: John Daly, Tiger Woods, David Duval, Retief Goosen and defending champion Phil Mickelson. Sure, the majors club is nice, but reputations are nothing but enhanced in this fraternity, too. No sense preparing for the next big thing when living large will pay off in the present. It’s all about your agenda. Last year: Phil Mickelson won his second BellSouth Classic title by surviving a five-man playoff, the first in nine years, as the PGA TOUR completed its second straight tournament on a Monday -- with regulation ending after 54 holes because of inclement weather. Mickelson poured in a 20-foot birdie putt on the fourth extra hole to defeat Rich Beem. Brandt Jobe, Arjun Atwal, and Jose Maria Olazabal were eliminated earlier in the playoff after the five men completed 54 holes in 8-under-par 208. How he did it: Mickelson’s all-around game wasn’t particularly sharp, but he took advantage of his birdie chances, converting 16, third most in the field, and posting the fifth best putting average after hitting the green in regulation. He also got a little lucky as Olazabal missed short birdie chances on the final hole of regulation and in the playoff. Strange but true: Three of the last five winners of the BellSouth Classic – Scott McCarron, Ben Crane and Zach Johnson – didn’t ride that victorious momentum into Augusta National Golf Club the following week. Fact is, they couldn’t, having not qualified for the Masters Tournament. True but not so strange: Mickelson is the only player in PGA TOUR history to win twice in a calendar year in Atlanta, the 2000 BellSouth Classic and THE TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club. If the course could talk: “Chipping and putting impress me more than anything else. And that could be good preparation for that older cousin of mine down the street the following week.” Worth knowing: • Davis Love III decided he wasn’t going to sleep on that second-round 83 at THE PLAYERS Championship until he gets to Augusta National Golf Club. Love was a late addition to the field for this week’s BellSouth Classic, where he hasn’t played since missing the cut in 2002. His record at TPC Sugarloaf also includes ties for seventh and 11th. • Count a refocused and recommitted Joe Durant among the latest to enlist the teaching services of Bryan Mogg, who recently took on Charles Howell III as a client. • Hale Irwin remains the only back-to-back winner of the BellSouth Classic winning in 1975 and ’77 (the ’76 event was pre-empted for the U.S. Open at nearby Atlanta Athletic Club), but Mickelson might be a good bet to join him with his two wins and third place finish in ’02. • Duluth resident Stewart Cink has six top-10 finishes and has made the cut in eight of 10 starts near his home course. • Since New Zealander Bob Charles won the first Atlanta stop in 1967, only two foreign-born players have won in the 36-year tournament history: Goosen, from South Africa, and Canada’s Dave Barr in 1987. Internationals have won six of 13 events this year, including four of the last five. TOUR Insider’s strength of field index: Some guys know an opportunity when the see it. 7.6. TI’s power ranking for the BellSouth Classic: 1. Phil Mickelson, 2. Ben Crane, 3. Stewart Cink, 4. Retief Goosen, 5. Scott McCarron. Parting shot: “Bloody hell, are you wearing green underwear?” -- Nick Faldo to a reporter after fielding a question about Augusta National Golf Club just minutes after the Englishman and three-time Masters champion missed the cut in THE PLAYERS Championship.