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DORAL, Fla. -- Their ages notwithstanding, Phil Mickelson and Nick Watney have plenty in common.
Both are California natives, former college hotshots, share the same management agency and are tied for the lead with 18 holes left at the CA Championship. Each has won on the PGA Tour already this season.
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| 'They are really not any weaknesses in his game,' Butch Harmon says of Nick Watney. (US Presswire) |
Butch Harmon coaches five players on the PGA Tour, and they keep intersecting in prominent locales, causing the highly regarded swing guru to work up a nice sweat flitting between the aforementioned two on Saturday, making sure everybody was feeling groovy with their swings before they teed off together.
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Watney, who at age 27 is some 11 years younger than Mickelson, tends to get loose a little faster, evidently.
"Nick does the 25 minute pre round warm up, so he hits all of 11 shots before he goes and plays," Mickelson laughed. "So he requires about 90 seconds from Butch, and I'll end up taking the other however-many minutes."
They'll run the ritual all over again Sunday, when the duo will again be paired in the final group after finishing the third round of the World Golf Championships locked in a tie for the lead at 16-under par at Doral Golf Resort & Spa.
When Harmon is caught in competing crosshairs, it can make for an interesting driving-range dance. The coach estimated he spent 10 minutes with Watney before the round and 20 minutes with Mickelson. He was similarly hustling at the Accenture Match Play Championship two weeks ago, when he bounced from Mickelson to Stewart Cink, who played each other in the third round.
"Yeah, it can be a little weird, you know, but like Phil made light of it when we were playing," Cink explained afterward. "Butch was with me right before we teed off and Phil walked over and said, 'Trying to get it long and narrow, right?' Because he knows that's exactly the opposite of what I'm trying to do. So, tongue-in-cheek."
Dividing his time is one thing. Harmon said that despite his role as mentor to the players, he hasn't found a way to divvy up his rooting interest.
"You just hope they play as well as they can and hope they come down to the last hole and somebody makes a birdie to win," Harmon said.
They certainly traded some stellar shots Saturday, with Watney shooting 67 to pick up two shots on Mickelson -- together they enjoy a four-shot lead. With their common thread in coaching, they have played together a few times in the offseason and become friendly. They spent the third round talking about football, mostly, Watney said.
"I would expect that he and I would be able to separate competition from personal relationship, be able to converse throughout the round and have a good time, as well as compete against each other," Mickelson said, breaking into a smirk. "But if that helped him in any way, then I will probably stop it tomorrow."
It's interesting timing that Harmon has become a sidebar story to the week. He began tutoring Mickelson on the sly precisely two years ago at Doral, and it seems as though the overhaul has at last come to fruition. Mickelson said the swing changes all have been implemented, feel natural, and he's playing as freely as he ever has. He's having more fun than he's had in years, too.
"I'll have spent two years with him, and I have never seen it [his confidence] this high, or seen him this happy, about his game," Harmon said.
Watney is the type who always seems fairly happy. He might not be a fount of funny quotes or color -- Golfweek once described his understated demeanor to "a librarian on Prozac" -- but he's unfailingly polite and deferential to his elders.
"It took me two years to get him to stop calling me Mr. Harmon," the coach laughed. "I feel old enough as it is."
Watney cracked that he might need to start wearing more outrageous attire, like 20-something peers Camilo Villegas or Anthony Kim, to get noticed. Harmon has a soft spot for the understated kid, whom he has known since Watney was a star at Fresno State. Watney, who won this season at Torrey Pines, moved to Las Vegas after college to be near Harmon's golf school, in fact.
"Nick is one of the nicest guys we have on tour and is one of the strongest good, young players we have coming up," Mickelson said. "He hits it hard and a long ways. He has a complete game and is a good, solid iron player as well as good short game, chipping and putting.
"There are really not any weaknesses in his game."
That's precisely why Harmon is still coaching him, frankly.
In the offseason, Harmon, who also serves as an analyst for Sky Sports in Europe, was looking to pare down his roster of clients. No knock on Watney, who with two career wins is clearly an emerging talent, but of the five players Harmon retained, he seems like the fifth Beatle.
The others are Mickelson, Ernie Els, Adam Scott and Cink -- all proven winners, Ryder Cup regulars or multiple major-championship victors, if not all three.
"He was actually the first guy I went to," Harmon said. "I said, 'I don't know if this is going to work for you because it's a little different than before, but he said, 'I'm in.' I like the kid and can see he has a lot of potential."
There's potential for drama in the final round Sunday, too. Mickelson is flying high, sort of like when he dueled Tiger Woods for the title at Doral in 2005, one of the most memorable shootouts in PGA Tour history. Watney, a tour rookie at the time, was watching on TV.
"I would love to have the opportunity, just to come down the stretch," Watney said. "I mean, there's no greater feeling in the world than being nervous and pulling the shot off at the end."
Well, unless you are Harmon, describing it during a live broadcast.
