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It was Phil’s 37th victory on the PGA Tour and his first since his wife Amy and mother Mary were diagnosed with breast cancer within a few weeks of each other.

At the end of a PGA Tour season that was marked by constant up and downs both on - but mostly off - the golf course, Mickelson’s play was a blueprint of consistency and golfing skill. If it wasn’t for one (big) blemish during his first round (a quadruple-bogey 8 that included three shots from the same bunker), one could almost mistake Phil for someone else as he was bombing it miles off the tee, hitting green after green and sinking chips and putts from all over the place.

Lefty started the fourth round four shots back off overnight leader Kenny Perry but quickly erased the deficit with birdies on number 3, 4,8 and 9 while Perry had an opening birdie on number 2 that he followed with bogeys on 3, 5, 9, 11 and a double-bogey on the difficult Par-4 13th. Mickelson sealed the victory when he chipped in for birdie from off the green on 16 and celebrated with one of several fist-pumps during Sunday’s play (picture).

“I thought it was a tough, challenging day with the wind. I knew that it was going to be difficult for some of the leaders or the group behind me to take off and run. … I played one of the better rounds I played all year,” Mickelson said after the round.

Phil’s third victory of the season at Atlanta propelled him into 2nd place (behind Tiger Woods) in the final FedEx Cup standings, earned him a $3 million bonus for doing exactly that (in addition to the “regular” prize money of §1.35 million) and helped him to recapture his position as the second-best golfer in the world according to the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR).

With Lefty back in full form I am very much looking forward to the bi-annual Presidents Cup between the US and International Team in San Francisco in two weeks time. As one of the rare team events on the top pro’s calender it usually provides great golf and equally great entertainment. However, with Woods, Mickelson and Stricker in complete control of their games and their international counterparts like Els, Singh and Villegas struggling we might see a rather one-sided competition.

Join us again next week on phil-fanatics.com for our preview to the 2009 Presidents Cup.