A poor final round 73 (+1) turned out to be costly for Phil Mickelson at the rain-delayed HSBC Champions Tournament at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China.

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After three solid rounds of 66, 70 and 70 Phil did enter the 4th round in a tie for 3rd and only two shots behind overnight leader Oliver Wilson (ENG). However, during Monday’s final round, Mickelson’s putting was not at its usual level.

Phil did manage only one birdie (which was offset by a bogey) during the first 14 holes and a double-bogey six on the difficult 15th hole effectively ended his hopes of defending the title won twelve months ago. Mickelson’s final round 73 was by far the worst of all players in contention for the title.

Spain’s Sergio Garcia won the tournament after beating Wilson with a birdie on the second hole of a sudden-death play-off. It was Garcia’s third win of the season and helped him overtake Phil in the Official World Golf Rankings. It is the first time in a long time (does anyone know exactly how long?) that Phil is positioned below number two in the world. I personally feel that the new ranking is a fair reflection of the results that both players (Mickelson and Garcia) have achieved in 2008: While Garcia managed to add a number of excellent finishes to his three victories in the US, Europe and Asia, Phil had a good but not great year (two titles on the PGA Tour) and did disappoint especially during the big events, notably the Majors and the FedEx Cup play-offs. 

Here is the new ranking (as of November 10th 2008):

1	Tiger Woods (USA)	14.10
2	Sergio Garcia (ESP)	8.68
3	Phil Mickelson (USA)	8.15
4	Vijay Singh (FIJ)	7.54
5	Padraig Harrington (IRE)	7.27
6	Robert Karlsson (SWE)	5.32
7	Camillo Villegas (COL)	5.29
8	Lee Westwood (ENG)	4.91
9	Anthony Kim (USA)	4.90
10	Henrik Stenson (SWE)	4.88

I cannot remember the last time I looked at a list of the ten best players in the world and Ernie Els was not on it…

The HSBC Champions tournament had to be finished on Monday because the 2nd day of play was a complete wash-out following torrential overnight rain and a steady downpour throughout the day. While the organizers tried to play catch-up on Saturday and sent out players in groups of three off both the 1st and 10th tee, another three hours were lost due to bad weather that forced another suspension of play. The third round was therefore completed on Sunday and the top players only managed to complete a few holes before darkness ended play.

Phil will stay in Asia and end his 2008 campaign with a start at the Barclay’s Singapore Open this week. While the field won’t be quite as strong as at the HSBC Champions, players like Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and Adam Scott should guarantee an exciting tournament.

I will give you the complete tournament summary together with my personal review of the golf year 2008 next week. So check back on www.phil-fanatics.com or sign-up to my RSS feed.