Playoff Takes a Left Turn

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 12, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN DIEGO — All you need to know about the Buick Invitational is that Phil Mickelson won a three-hole playoff when he double bogeyed the last hole and that Frank Lickliter lost when he made triple bogey even though he eagled the same hole one day before.

Go figure it. With apologies to that PGA Tour slogan, These Guys Are Weird.

Mickelson defended his Buick title in bizarre fashion Sunday at Torrey Pines, surviving a three-way playoff that included Davis Love III, twice knocking his drives into the trees on the deciding playoff hole and still winning, even though he finished with a double-bogey six.

“It was certainly an awkward playoff,” Mickelson said. “But I’ll take it. Winning feels great and it certainly doesn’t matter how.”

Mickelson, who lost to Love last week at Pebble Beach when he hooked his ball into the ocean on the last hole, won this time when Lickliter hit his drive on the third and last playoff hole into a canyon (which Mickelson also did, of course) and wound up three-putting for triple bogey.

Lickliter, who hasn’t won a tournament, was near speechless afterward.

“I’m still kind of in shock right now, I guess,” he said. “It’s tough to swallow.”

And even tougher to understand.

It was Mickelson’s 18th PGA Tour victory and his fifth in the last 12 months. He won $630,000 and became the first three-time winner of the event after shooting a 66 in regulation, the same as Lickliter. Love had a 67.

“I know I needed to shoot the low round of the day,” Love said. “Obviously, I didn’t do it.”

Love was gone after the second playoff hole when he drove the bunker at No. 16 and made a bogey. Mickelson and Lickliter moved to the third extra hole, the 425-yard 17th, the same one that Lickliter eagled Saturday and birdied Sunday.

But this time, nothing like that happened at all.

Mickelson hit first and knocked his drive far into the brush and trees in a canyon to the left of the fairway.

Lickliter was next, and, unbelievably, he did the same thing.

“When Phil framed his into the garbage, I got too excited,” Lickliter said. “I put mine right there in on top of him.”

After that, there was no real script to follow, just a rule book to consult. Both players hit provisional balls, figuring their original balls were lost. However, both were found, which meant that the provisionals could not be used. Mickelson was urging marshals not to look for his ball, because he didn’t want to have to go back to the tee and hit a third shot.

“[The marshal] was just trying to do his job,” Mickelson said. “I just wish he didn’t do it so effectively.”

Anyway, back went Mickelson and Lickliter to the tee to hit a third ball. This time, Mickelson sent his drive left. Again. It hit a tree. Again. But, oddly enough, the ball bounced back toward the fairway.

“I’m very lucky,” Mickelson said. “I thought I had thrown it away twice.”

They were on the green in four. Mickelson missed his bogey putt, but tapped in for a double-bogey six.

Lickliter was 12 feet away and putting for bogey to win. But the ball rolled past by about five feet. Now, Lickliter had to make the putt for his own double bogey to stay in the playoff.

He missed, ending one of the stranger playoffs you will see.

“It didn’t break,” Lickliter said. “I put it right there on the edge and it never moved.”

Lickliter made birdies on four of the last six holes in regulation to force a playoff, but didn’t feel that great about the result, that it would come down to such an ending.

“You mean lousy?” he said.

“Other than getting a little stupid, I feel like I played pretty good,” he said.

Mickelson had the best chance to end it sooner. With a three-shot lead over Tiger Woods, Lickliter and Love and only five holes to go, Mickelson appeared ready to wrap this one up early, but that’s not the way it turned out.

At the 14th, Mickelson started wobbling, but steered a 15-footer into the hole to save par. When Lickliter birdied the 15th, he got closer and when Mickelson bogeyed the par-three 16th after driving into the front bunker, his lead was down to one shot over Love and Lickliter.

Mickelson launched his drive left at No. 17 yet still saved par, but Lickliter caught up with a birdie at the 17th.

Meanwhile, Love could have been right there himself if he had managed to get a few birdie putts to fall on the back side. When his eight-footer dropped in for a birdie at No. 17, he was tied with Lickliter and Mickelson.

All three had eagle putts at the 18th and if any had gone in, it would have meant a victory. That’s not what happened either.

Lickliter had a 35-footer veer just left, but he had an easy tap-in for a birdie and finished regulation with a 66 and a 19-under 269. Mickelson was next. He had a 10-footer with a left-to-right break, but it didn’t fall. He finished his 66 and waited to see if Love would join the playoff.

Love was standing in the fairway, 167 yards from the hole, waiting to hit his second shot, knowing he needed an eagle to win and a birdie to catch Mickelson and Lickliter. He hit an eight-iron and stopped the ball 25 feet above the hole, but the best he could manage was a two-putt birdie to make the playoff.

“I hit a pretty good putt, but it was bouncing downhill and never stayed on the ground [long] enough to break,” Love said.

Woods also had a chance to eagle the 18th, but even if he had, he would have fallen just short. His ball was 15 feet below the hole on the fringe and he rolled it slightly to the right by inches. The ball seemed to take a small hop after he hit it.

“It danced everywhere,” Woods said. “I could see it go left, right, left, right, back and forth.”

When Woods tapped in from inches for his birdie, he finished with a five-under 67, two shots behind the trio in the playoff. Woods, who played the last three rounds in 67-67-67 and 15 under, said he isn’t sure whether he will play in the Nissan Open at Riviera in two weeks.

“I’m really looking forward to taking some time off,” he said.

How well he practices will decide if he plays at Riviera, said Woods, who insisted if his practices are not up to his standards, “then I’ll bag it.”

As for Mickelson, he is taking three weeks off. That’s enough time to figure out how he managed to win a tournament he nearly didn’t play because of food poisoning and then nearly lost because he kept bouncing golf balls off trees.

“I think I played well,” he said. “I also think I was lucky.”

THE FINISH

at Torrey Pines

South Course

Par 72

x-Phil Mickelson

$630,000 -19

Frank Lickliter

$308,000 -19

Davis Love III

$308,000 -19

Tiger Woods