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Can Mickleson Repeat?

@ May 7, 2008 6:09 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Never in the 35 year history of THE Players Championship has the previous years' winner defended his title. Jack Nicklaus won three Players, Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Hal Sutton and Steve Elkington all have won the event twice, but not back-to-back. This year, Phil Mickleson will try to become the first ever to successfully defend his crown, and it sounds like he thinks he has a chance to do just that.

"In the past short game was not as integral an element in this tournament because the rough around the greens was so difficult that it was the same for everybody," Mickleson said. "And now you can chip, you can putt, you can lob it. It's a tough challenge around the greens, but skill is a big part of it. I look forward to this tournament every year now because my chances of being in contention and my chances of winning have gone up greatly."

Mickleson will tee off tomorrow at 8:33 from the 10th tee, playing with Rory Sabatini and Henrik Stenson. You can see all the tee times <a href="/localnews/2008/05/starting-times-for-the-players.html"> here.</a>