After 11 days in isolation, Dustin Johnson is back on course

There was something so Mickelsonian about what happened at the Bass Pro Shops Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri this week as fearless Phil went wire-to-wire to become the 20th player to win in his PGA TOUR Champions debut at the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National. The winning itself was like him; he has 44 PGA TOUR titles. But so was the way he did it. RELATED: What’s in Phil bag? | Final leaderboard Wearing what ESPN's Scott Van Pelt calls his Cartman sunglasses, Mickelson swung from the heels at sumptuous Ozarks National, and shot an opening 10-under 61 with a bogey on a par 5. In round two, after showing front-nine highlights, the Golf Channel went live to Mickelson as he looked for his ball in waist-high fescue at the 10th. It was classic Phil whiplash, and while he never found the ball, he saved bogey. Under threatening skies and with the tee times moved up in round three, he drove the green and eagled the fifth hole, opening up a five-shot lead. That Mickelson cooled off and carded a final-round 66 to finish 22 under, four better than runner-up Tim Petrovic (66) , didn't quite recall his 13-shot victory at the 2006 BellSouth Classic, but the win was impressive nonetheless. "I wasn't as sharp the back nine," Mickelson said. "I got off to a good start, though, fortunately to build enough cushion. ... I really enjoyed seeing all the guys again, seeing how they were so accommodating and fun. It's fun for me to compete. I got to shoot scores and compete. "There was a lot of good," he added, "and there were things I identified I've got to work on." This was all made possible because Mickelson missed the cut at THE NORTHERN TRUST at TPC Boston last Friday, ensuring he would miss this week's BMW Championship for the first time since the FedExCup Playoffs began in 2007. But he turned lemons into lemonade. "It was a good course for me," Mickelson said, noting that Ozarks National's relatively wide fairways allowed him to exploit a length advantage that was at times stark. Mickelson will now try to emulate two of his elders, Fred Funk and Craig Stadler, both of whom won on the PGA TOUR after winning on PGA TOUR Champions. "Confidence no matter where it comes from is always good," Funk texted from Ozarks National, where he shot a final-round 72 to finish 4 over and well back. In other words, sometimes winning can bleed over from one tour to the next. Stadler won the 2003 B.C. Open - his last of 13 PGA TOUR wins - a week after he'd captured the Ford Senior Players Championship. "And all of a sudden I learned how to play again," he said. "It's the magical number. Get a good bottle of wine, turn 50 and you start playing well." Always a late-bloomer, Funk, also 50, took a break from PGA TOUR Champions to capture the 2007 Mayakoba Golf Classic, the last of his eight PGA TOUR victories. "I think I validated how good the players are on the Champions Tour," he said at the time. Mickelson is expected to only dabble on the 50-and-over circuit, at least for now. He believes he is still plenty competitive on the PGA TOUR, and the facts back him up. He tied for second, three back, at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational earlier this month. He won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last year, and the WGC-Mexico Championship the year before that. So the regular TOUR is where he will continue to play. This makes Mickelson different from some others who won their first Champions start; Lanny Wadkins, calling the action at Ozarks National, said he hadn't won in eight years when he did it. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player won in their maiden Champions starts. Jim Furyk was the most recent to do it before Mickelson, capturing the Ally Challenge earlier this month. Mickelson will be talked about and written about even more than usual in the coming months. He plans to play in the first tournament of the new TOUR season, the Safeway Open in Napa, California, in two weeks, and then it's back to New York and the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where he double-bogeyed the 72nd hole and Geoff Ogilvy won in 2006. Will he have a chance at winning this time, exorcising the demons and completing the career Grand Slam? Maybe. The Masters Tournament in November awaits after that. Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion, should figure prominently there, too. Winning is winning, and as Mickelson proved at Big Cedar Lodge, he can still get it done.

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Tiger Woods remains winless this season, but the fact that he has one last chance at the TOUR Championship in two weeks is a massive accomplishment in itself given his uncertainty at the start of the year. Woods secured his spot in the 30-man field at East Lake with a 5-under 65 in Monday’s final round of the BMW Championship. That moved him to 20th in the FedExCup Playoffs standings after entering the tournament ranked 25th. Six days ago, Woods was named as a captain’s pick for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Now he has the opportunity to win a third FedExCup title in two weeks. It will be Tiger’s first appearance at East Lake since 2013. “At the end of the season here to say that I made it back to the TOUR Championship after what I’ve been through is a pretty good accomplishment,â€� Woods said after his round Monday left him at 17 under and tied for sixth. “… To make the Ryder Cup team and get back to East Lake, that was a pretty big goal at the beginning of the year, and to be able to accomplish that is something I’m very proud of.â€� A year ago, Woods had just received the clearance to start chipping after undergoing his fourth back surgery. He wasn’t sure what to expect when he returned to action on the PGA TOUR in late January. But in 17 starts this season, he has two runner-up finishes, and his T6 at Aronimink was his sixth top-10 of the year. Even more impressive, he seems to be hitting his stride. Since his opening-round 78 at the U.S. Open, he’s played 29 rounds, with 16 of those in the 60s, and just four over par. His highest score in that stretch is 73; his lowest came in Thursday’s first round of the BMW when he shot an 8-under 62. How did he do it? “Lots of hard work,â€� Woods said. “Lots of hard work and patience. Just constant feel and understanding of what it is because the game has changed, the body has changed and the body has changed dramatically since I first started. Trying to get used to the equipment and changing equipment because my swing is changing because my body is changing. “It’s been quite a year.â€� And it’s not over. Woods would dearly love to cap off his comeback with a victory at the TOUR Championship. His last win at East Lake was in 2007 when he won the inaugural FedExCup title. Mathematically, Woods will have a chance to win the title, although the scenarios will require the top players to fall back. Still, he’s just glad to have the chance. Had he putted a little better Monday, he might have sneaked into the playoff with Justin Rose and eventual champion Keegan Bradley. After failing to get up-and-down from the greenside bunker at the 14th, Woods could not convert birdie chances at the 15th (from 9 feet) and 17th (from inside 13 feet). “To have a chance to win again, this year, it’s a very positive feeling,â€� Woods said. “[If I] made a few more putts this week, could have been a different deal coming down the stretch but even though, you know, I finished at 17 and I had three good looks on the last three holes — or two of the last three holes. That’s a positive.â€�

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