Is Phil Mickelson poised to make one final charge?

AUGUSTA, Ga. - The air of madness, of tinkering and tampering and seeking an advantage, has been replaced with an air of desperation.

Phil Mickelson asked Callaway to create a special driving wood for him.

He will use a SuperStroke putter grip, one of those jumbo sleeves used by K.J. Choi, which feels like a baseball bat and is designed to minimize hand action.

Watching Mickelson putt with a jumbo grip is like watching Baryshnikov dance with a knee brace.

He put the grip on a white-and-black half-mallet, an inelegant concession next to his usual cool, black putter head.

He declined to play the week before the Masters for the first time since 2008.

He is getting old, and his kids are getting older.

He is arthritic.

Are these most recent club changes concessions to age . . . or the foreshadowing of his departure?

Could Mickelson be making a last, great run at a Masters title?

Not retiring, exactly; just fading, receding, playing only often enough to peak for the majors.

This is not a wish, by any means. Phil is great for the game, and, with the exception of Bill Clinton, is the most incisive interview on the planet.

Nor is it a suggestion; he won already this year, and he has won at least once since 2010, when he earned his third green jacket, the fourth major of his career.

Nor is there much more than circumstantial evidence to support the notion: He's ranked No. 9 in the world and does not seem to lack energy.

But there are cracks.

However, Phil, the congenial joker, has not granted a one-on-one chat in years and has become a bit impatient during his interview sessions:

"You heard me say it's my driver, right? I mean, I don't know if I'm getting this clear," he sniped, when, for the third time, he was asked to describe the hybrid club he helped create and will use off the tee. And no, he never really got it clear.

He has not won more than once since his four wins in 2009.

He has not been ranked inside the top five in more than 2 years.

He will turn 43 on the final day of the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club in June, which he never has won. Given the challenge of typical U.S. Opens, Merion, a shorter venue, might be his best shot.

His best . . . last shot?

Mickelson will start for the 21st time at Augusta National, a course that rewards experienced players. The course favors a lefthanded bomber who can play a cut, who lofts soft irons and wedges and who can putt deliciously. Mickelson's three wins, combined with Bubba Watson's win last year, account for four of the last nine titles. Both Mickelson and Watson hit it long, loft it high and, when they're hot, they can putt any course to its knees.

The U.S. and British Opens rotate to different sites. The former demands discipline; the latter, versatility. Mickelson lacks both.

He won the PGA Championship in 2005 at Baltusrol, and he won The Players Championship in 2007 at TPC Sawgrass, another annual site that fits his style.

Today's Phil is not yesteryear's Phil.

Yesteryear's Phil does not avoid the Valero Texas Open, played on a windswept, tight track in San Antonio. Mickelson cited the wind and the course's confines as so anti-Augusta that he didn't dare participate and fall into the pattern of hitting knockdowns and tracers.

Rory McIlroy had no such qualms. He finished second.

After 41 PGA titles and 2 decades of play in the Georgia pines, you have to figure Phil would be able to adjust in 3 days. Instead, he played the National on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

He is playing so well he almost won Wednesday's Par-3 Contest, but cleverly lost in a playoff, avoiding its jinx. He then wore out the putting green for an hour.

You just get the feeling that winning this weekend would be the icing on his cake. And you wonder what would have happened had he not blown it on Sunday last year.

Last year, a disastrous triple-bogey on No. 4 cost him a shot at the Masters title. He then tied for 65th at the U.S. Open, missed the cut at the British, and finished 36th at the PGA.

He then began this year promising "drastic changes," in light of tax-code modifications in California, which set the golf world (and the political word) atwitter with speculation. He apologized for his seemingly elitist comments and promised no further forays into the world of finance complaint.

He then won the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Feb. 3 hometown at 28-under, tying the tournament record and two strokes shy of the PGA Tour record of 254. He embraced the most raucous crowd in golf - shoot, he even high-fives the stodgy patrons at Augusta - and he shined.

Since that February win, he has finished 60th, 21st, third, 16th, and he missed the cut Arnold Palmer Invitational 3 weeks ago. Not a model of consistency.

Which begat the silly putter, and the Phrankendriver. The latter deserves some elucidation.

Mickelson found himself so delighted by the performance of his 3-wood and so dismayed at his lack of control with his driver that he abandoned it the past few weeks. He then asked Callaway technicians to create a club that would act like a driver but swing like his 3-wood.

The result: a club whose head is slightly larger than a 3-wood, with a shaft as long as a driver (about 45 inches) and about 8.5 degrees of loft, or 3 degrees less than the 3-wood.

The reason: more control; less spin, so more roll, so more distance, which brings the greens on No. 9, No. 10 and No. 15 closer for the old fella.

"You'll see; a lot of the shots off the tee that I hit have a lot more scoot on them," Mickelson said.

Understand that Mickelson used his regular driver when he won in Phoenix, and he raved about it. He did not use the Callaway 3-wood he now loves so much.

And, of course, he used the black putter with the regular putter grip, which allowed Mickelson to use a version of the "claw grip." The jumbo grip does not allow for the claw.

Is this guy manic, or what?

The jumbo also has never been used to win a major . . . hough, in 2011, Choi used it when he won The Players, golf's unofficial fifth major and the sport's best field.

Choi will be 43 next month.

He has not won since that Players title, when he was ranked in the teens.

He is ranked 75th today. He is fading. Receding.

There is no shame in that.

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