Mickelson moving into position to take Woods' crown

NORTON, Mass. -- Phil Mickelson had, if you'll pardon the amended spelling, a doubly déjà vu moment on Sunday afternoon.

Last year at the TPC Boston, Mickelson hit a textbook approach shot at the 15th hole that clanged off the flag and bounced away, leaving him in a decidedly poor position that mirrored his mood.

Lefty looks to become just the fifth American since the rankings were unveiled to climb to world No. 1. (Getty Images)

This time, in the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship, he stood in the same fairway and noticed that the flag was in the same spot that elicited his bad luck last year. Noting the hole location, he turned to his caddie in the fairway before the shot and cracked, "I'm going to try to just miss the pin."

Incredibly, he didn't, zapping the center of the flag from 120 yards. Just like last time, the ball caromed off the front of the green, seemingly wrecking any birdie chance. This time around, just before he hit the ball, he turned to caddie Jim Mackay again.

"Screw it, I'm going to try to knock it in," he said.

He's still chipping away, all right. Mickelson knocked in a wedge from 46 feet for a birdie and finished with a 4-under 67 that again moved him within reach of the most elusive prize in his career -- the world No. 1 ranking, which has escaped him over the past four months.

Like with last year's flagstick bounce, will the final result be different this week? This has been a long time coming, dating to the Quail Hollow Championship, the first of 11 consecutive starts on two worldwide tours wherein Lefty could have deposed Tiger Woods as the reigning czar of the golf world.

Mickelson stands in a four-way tie for sixth in his quest to become only the fifth American since the rankings were unveiled 24 years ago to climb to world No. 1. As has been the case over most of that span, the scenario isn't entirely within his control -- unless he wins, which is the way he'd prefer to claim the honor.

"Play like you deserve it," Mickelson said of the ranking. "That's the goal."

He's five shots behind surging Aussie star Jason Day, who matched the tournament record over 54 holes at 17 under. Mickelson was four shots back heading into the final day of the Bridgestone Invitational last month, shot 78, and tanked.

Here's the skinny for the newbie vegetarian: Mickelson can climb to No. 1 with a win no matter what Woods does, but if not, he can still make the grade based on a series of unpredictable scenarios, as has been the case for weeks.

Otherwise, Mickelson ascends if he finishes second and Woods is outside the top three, by finishing third provided that Woods is outside the top nine, or by placing fourth given that Woods is outside the top 24 and Steve Stricker doesn't win.

How about this for not-so-mundane Monday viewing: Stricker is the defending champion and is tied for fourth, one shot ahead of Mickelson. Woods is T23. Thus, watching Lefty's world No. 1 scenario unfold, or unravel, could be more interesting than the FedEx Cup sweepstakes or determining the actual tournament winner.

No question, the consensus in golf land is that Mickelson, the second-best player of his generation, deserves to plant the flag as world No. 1 before his career winds down. Woods has been ranked No. 1 for an astounding 615 weeks overall, including the past five years in succession. In other words, Woods has been No. 1 for 12 of his 15 years as a pro.

Aussie star Geoff Ogilvy, who has climbed as high as No. 3 in the rankings, says Mickelson richly deserves the honor, though the timing is curious since he isn't exactly flying high with his game at the moment. Interestingly, Ogilvy is one of the guys tied with Mickelson in sixth and can seriously affect whether it happens Monday or not.

"I'm still going to have a hard time in my head thinking that a guy who has won 80 tournaments and 14 majors and has hardly had a tournament where he didn't finish top 10 for 10 years, I'm still going to have a hard time thinking there's a player in the world better than that guy," Ogilvy said of Woods. "If he keeps playing like he's playing, then obviously that's going to change my opinion.

"Phil is obviously a Hall of Famer, he's going to be talked about in the top 20 or so of all time, so it would be really cool if he got to No. 1. I mean, Nick Price got there, a lot of guys, Steve, Tom Lehman, it would be nice. Vijay got to No. 1, which was deserved at the time.

"Phil would probably say he hasn't played well enough to earn it this year, but if he gets to a patch in his career where he is No. 1, it will be right. Whether anyone believes he is the best in the world at that time, it doesn't really matter. He deserves to be No. 1 at some point.

"It will be cool for Phil. He works hard -- harder than people think."

Then again, maybe this isn't some sort of lifetime achievement award.

Steve Marino played with Mickelson in the third round and raved about how well Mickelson was mashing it. You can throw out the rankings.

"I think he probably is the No. 1 player in the world right now," Marino said. "I know what the rankings say, but we all know Tiger isn't playing his best right now. He hasn't played well all year. He's gone through a bunch of stuff and obviously it's pretty much impossible to play good golf when he's had to deal with.

"He'll be back, but Phil is the No. 1 player in the world right now. He's the best player I've played with [this year]."

All the telling signs seem right. The end of the third round was textbook Lefty. After the crazy carom birdie at the 15th, he hit his worst shot of the day on the par-3 16th and made a bogey. After a routing par on the 16th, Mickelson nearly hit his approach on the par-5 18th into a hazard fronting the green, which he cleared by a few feet. His ball nearly clanged off a buried boulder, which he missed by inches. Mickelson removed a yellow hazard stake, then pitched the ball to four feet, and cleaned up his closing birdie.

More importantly, he signed for his third straight score in the 60s for the first time since the AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach on Feb. 14. That week, he closed with a 71 and finished T8.

For believers in strange symmetry, the last time Woods was unseated as No. 1 came at the Deutsche Bank in 2004, when Vijay Singh toppled him at TPC Boston to start a 32-week run atop the rankings.

For the umpteenth time over the past four months, Mickelson was asked about what it would mean to finally get to the top after years on the second and third rungs. No player has been ranked No. 2 longer.

This time, he gave an answer that wasn't largely dismissive.

"Well, it would be cool for anybody," he said. "That's what we're all ultimately striving for. But before that can happen, I've got to get my game back, and it feels like it's starting to come back.

"I haven't paid attention this week [to the scenarios]. After missing the cut that was the last thing on my mind, so I haven't paid attention to what needs to happen. But I'm looking forward to getting in the hunt tomorrow and seeing if I can get off to a good start and make some birdies and move up that leaderboard."

If he plays his caroms right, he might also move up the biggest tote board of all.