Mickelson Splendid in Victory

DENVER — Phil Mickelson played exactly the way his former University of San Diego High School teammate Manny Zerman remembered.

“He’s a shot maker with a great head on his shoulders, and he doesn’t get rattled very easily,” Zerman said Sunday after Mickelson beat him in the double-round final of the U.S. Amateur, 5 and 4.

Mickelson, the 20-year-old, two-time NCAA champion from Arizona State, was 5-under-par through the 32 holes played on Sunday. He birdied 10 of those holes -- including five of his last 12 -- to hold off Zerman, 20, of the University of Arizona.

Mickelson now is eligible to play in next year’s Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and British Amateur.

“This is something I’ve dreamed about for quite a long time,” he said. “It was a tough match. I’d play well, then I’d play poorly, then I’d play well again. But my putter was consistently strong all day. I had a lot of confidence in it, and that was the key to my success.”

Mickelson said the turning point may have come at the par-three eighth hole in the afternoon. He was one-up but looked about to drop to even after Zerman holed out a 55-foot chip shot. But Mickelson sank a 30-foot, double-breaking putt for his own birdie to halve the hole.

“For me to make that putt right on top of him made me feel I was still in control,” Mickelson said. “After he made the chip, I thought I was losing it.”

Zerman felt he was “done in” by the 10th hole, which he bogeyed in both the morning and afternoon rounds. The second time he played it, he drove into the rough, left a wedge short of the green and chipped poorly, leaving himself a 20-footer. He two-putted for bogey, giving Mickelson the hole and starting Mickelson on a run where he would win four of five holes.

“I just didn’t feel I was quite in sync all day,” Zerman said after hitting only 15 fairways and 16 greens.

Mickelson, three-up after the morning 18, immediately dropped the first two holes of the afternoon. They alternated winning the next four holes, but Zerman never could pull even.

The front nine featured some brilliant play. Mickelson, in danger of having the match fall to even after hitting over the third green, holed out a 50-foot pitch shot for birdie.

Zerman nearly aced the 168-yard sixth hole, his seven-iron finishing six inches from the cup.

After hitting a difficult pitch shot to within inches to save par at No. 7, Zerman chipped in at the eighth. But Mickelson made a 30-footer for his own birdie.

Mickelson’s par at No. 10 put him two-up.

He went to 3-up on the next hole with a birdie. He was just left of the par-five hole in two, pitched to 10 feet and made the putt. Zerman couldn’t make an eight-footer to tie.

At 13, a short par-four, Mickelson wedged to six feet and sank the birdie putt to go four-up. Zerman two-putted from 10 feet.

Mickelson closed out the match at 14 with a two-putt par while Zerman hit his approach over the green, chipped to five feet and missed the par putt.

In the morning 18, Mickelson won four straight holes, three of them with birdies, for a three-up lead.