PERHAPS PHIL Mickelson has been reading these columns and decided that the only way to guarantee success is to cover all bases or at least as many as possible.
Mickelson was one of the early adopters of the four-wedge strategy as research by the likes of short-game guru Dave Pelz hammered home the importance of what he termed the scoring clubs. The old adage maintained that golf was a game of "drive for show and putt for dough".
The 21st century equivalent is "bomb for show, gouge and putt for dough" as more and more players sacrifice straightness off the tee to get anywhere near the green before calling on a multiplicity of wedges and a hot putter to get the ball in the hole in as few shots as possible.
At last week's Crowne Plaza Invitational (the Colonial to you and me), Mickelson left the six-iron out of his bag on Thursday and omitted the three-wood on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This wasn't to accommodate a second driver as he did at Augusta a couple of years back but to include a fifth wedge.
That's more than a third of the clubs in his bag and he used them in every round and never to more telling effect than on the final hole when he decided his 52-degree model was the perfect weapon to fly his ball narrowly over one branch and under another.
Mickelson pulled the shot off and when he rolled in the nine-foot birdie clincher he made himself, Pelz, his caddy Jim Mackay and his 532 Golf Masters employers very happy indeed.
It's a good job that you can only have 14 clubs in the bag or Mackay and his fellow bagmen might find themselves straining under the weight of a few drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, half a dozen wedges and a couple of putters - Sergio Garcia had long and short flatsticks in his bag earlier in the season.
Perhaps 14 or even 10 should also be set as the absolute maximum number of teams managed by any individual in Golf Masters.
After the shock of finding that Peter Lynch had a beneficial interest in 435 teams last week, we were surprised if not heartbroken to see him follow the example of every other overall leader we've had this year and cede top spot seven days later.
Well, our new overall leader, Michael Kenna, likes to cover the bases as well.
In as far as we can tell, his pacesetting M Kenna 7 selection is one of 207 teams that he entered online using over 40 e-mail addresses.
But just as he was busy at registration time he has been hyperactive in the transfer market as well.
Like Mickelson, their week seven switch hit the jackpot with Miguel Angel Jimenez brought in for Padraig Harrington who regards the Wentworth greens in May in the same light he views cholesterol-laden dairy spreads - not good for neither his golf nor his health.
But unless Tiger Woods' knee fails to mend, Mickelson won't be number one at the end of the season. And with only three transfers left, M Kenna 7 won't be either.
e-mail: golfmasters@irish-times.ie
