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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

The last time most of us saw Phil Mickelson was in September as he was leaving the media center at The K Club, dejected like the rest of his U.S. teammates after suffering that lopsided Ryder Cup defeat.

Maybe we just weren't looking in the right places, though.

Over the last four months, Mickelson has traveled to Bora-Bora, where he and his wife Amy celebrated their 10th anniversary by renewing their vows in a Polynesian ceremony. They visited Venice and Rome with friends, too.

(Chris Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage.com)

Phil Mickelson

Victories in Season Debuts

Year Tournament Score to Par 2004 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic -30 2002 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic -30 1998 Mercedes-Benz Championship -17 1994 Mercedes-Benz Championship -12 1991 Northern Telecom Open* -16

*Mickelson won the 1991 Northern Telecom Open playing as an amateur.

Mickelson also opened his own golf course design company and has traveled to scout the sites for the courses he's building in Cashiers, N.C., and Cabo San Lucas. Final negotiations on courses in Hawaii and the Caribbean are on-going, as well.

This week, though, Mickelson is back in familiar surroundings in Palm Springs, Calif., where he will make his much-awaited 2007 PGA TOUR debut at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Mickelson has won the tournament two times in the last five years. In fact, he has captured his season's debut a total of five times, and he is a combined 141-under par in his opener over the last decade.

Mickelson sees that history of success as a confidence builder. Maybe more important, though, is the 36-year-old's general state of mind.

"I think the biggest thing is that I'm excited to play again and usually after a layoff that's what happened," he said. "My excitement level for the game comes back and I just can't wait to get started."

Mickelson has spent the last six 12-to-14 hour days with his brain-trust, swing coach Rick Smith and short-game wizard Dave Pelz. He's anxious to see if the game plan they put together in the offseason pays off as he plays four weeks in a row.

"I'm very excited about 2007," Mickelson said. "I'm not excited just because we have a new FedExCup season and so forth, but because I've addressed a problem in my game that I think I've created a solution."

The wayward drive that strayed into the left rough on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open drew attention to the problem. Without that drive -- and 12 others during the final round at Winged Foot -- what even Mickelson calls a "disappointing" year could have been much, much different.

"You know, I really believe that the past former presidents of the USGA that passed away were looking down and said no one should win the Open hitting two of 14 fairways," he said. "That certainly came back to bite me and I have got to address that need."

He can joke about it now, but the truth is, the popular Californian was bidding for his third straight major on the way toward a Mickel-slam. Had he made par, he would have won. A bogey would have gotten him into a playoff with Geoff Ogilvy.

Instead, the second-guessing and soul-searching began.

"Dealing with failure is part of the game," Mickelson said. "I deal with it 90 percent of the time. I look back to when I lost the 2001 PGA to David Toms. On the 16th hole there I three putted. I had a 50 footer, 60 footer, I blew it eight feet behind the hole and three putted. I looked back at that event and realized my lag putting needs to improve because I'm not going to win majors if my lag putting isn't better.

"After imploring the help of Dave Pelz, we developed drills to improve my lag putting, and it's led to two Masters wins as well as a PGA on some quick greens.

"This off season what we addressed is driving. I always kind of put it back like, "I know I can hit a fairway if I have to," what have you. It wasn't the case and I had to address that."

Mickelson says what he and Smith have been working on is relatively simple. "All I'm trying to do is square up the face a little bit quicker," he explained. Pelz has designed several devices to help him get his swing back in order.

Mickelson has also worked with the technicians at Callaway to design a driver that will eliminate his tendency to hit the ball left. He'll use the FT5 this week in Palm Springs but has been testing a longer version of the FT1 that could be in his bag for Mickelson's Masters title defense.

"I think that the FTI, the square headed driver, is not just an evolutionary driver," he said. "I think it's more of a revolutionary driver. Because it's such a drastic change, because the moment of inertia is so high, because the ball goes so straight it doesn't want to curve, I think it's actually going to take a little bit more time on the PGA TOUR.

"There will be guys that love it. Guys that don't like to work shots and want to aim it down the middle of the fairway and rip it, this will be perfect for them because it goes so straight but some guys like to hit little draws, hit a fade, hit high shots, low shots; and the design from my manufacturer, the FT5 is a much better fit to hit those variety of shots.

"But if I just wanted to hit it straight, I'll go to the FTI which is why I'm leaning towards that driver for Augusta when I tried to hit it a lot longer. I'm not really trying to maneuver it or curve it; I'm just trying to hit high bombs."

Just as he worked to correct his swing flaw, Mickelson feels conditioning played a part in his lackluster showing at the Ryder Cup. So he increased the intensity of his workouts with his fitness coach, Sean Cochran -- adding a weight training program and varying his martial arts training.

"I immediately lost 20, 25 pounds and put on about 10 to 15 more with muscle from lifting, trying to build up stamina doing 45 minutes to an hour and a half of cardio five or six days a week," Mickelson said. "But I'm hoping that this will improve stamina so that at the latter part of the year I have a better performance."

Mickelson expects to play the same number of events as he did a year ago, just in a more condensed time frame. He wants to be fresh for The Presidents Cup and FedExCup playoffs, which he feels will add a lot of excitement to the season.

"I just can't wait to get started," Mickelson said. "I'm really excited about this year. I think the TOUR has a lot of new excitement thing, likes the FedExCup that should help create interest throughout the entire year, not just specific events.

"What's cool is that we actually have something to play for now at the end of the year, as opposed to having the money list already decided, the Player of the Year already decided and it just being a tournament for the top 30 on TOUR. This is now going to be a four tournament stretch that will decide a lot."