Mickelson doesn't repeat error on 16

His putt there Sunday was his confidence-builder.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- Walking up to the 16th hole that had bedeviled him more than once at the Masters, Phil Mickelson tried to keep the bad memories to a minimum.
No need to think back three years. Three days would do just fine.
Setting aside the thought of the missed putt on 16 that sank him in 2001, Mickelson was more focused on a double bogey from the first round. He hit it too far that day, and wasn't going to make that mistake Sunday.
"Just a normal 8-iron, because we didn't want the ball to take off," he said.
Perfect placement
It didn't. Instead, the shot went high over the pond and came down softly on the putting surface, then bent slightly to the right and stopped about 15 feet short of the hole.
Mickelson made the putt and suddenly, grabbing that elusive major championship didn't seem so hard.
"I was very confident today that good things would happen," he said. "As I was walking to the green, it didn't seem overwhelming. I thought, 'I'll make that putt and birdie one of the last two.' "
Indeed, he snaked in an 18-footer on the 18th hole to win it Sunday, but let the record show that the confidence builder came two holes earlier.
"It was a nice putt to make," he said.
Mickelson had been in position before and failed -- every blip and blunder in his 0-for-42 streak in the majors part of a well-documented trail of heartache.
Haunting hole
One of the biggest mistakes came three years ago on No. 16, the hole they call "Redbud."
Playing in the final group with Tiger Woods, Mickelson made a birdie on 15 while the leader was three-putting the hole, cutting the margin to a single stroke.
Lefty went to 16 with all the confidence in the world -- then promptly put his tee shot on the one spot on the green where it couldn't be. He grimaced as his ball came to a stop on the upper tier of the green, leaving a treacherous downhill putt.
It slid by the hole, and he missed the 7-footer coming back. The bogey cost him any chance of chasing down Woods. The mistake went down as another example of Mickelson folding under pressure.
But that missed shot wasn't even going through Mickelson's mind as he headed toward the narrow little tee box Sunday, the shadows growing as he prepared to hit a shot that could once again define him.
Instead, he thought of the first round. His caddie, Jim "Bones" McKay, reminded Mickelson that he flew the tee shot over the green and wound up taking double bogey.
"The pin was 190" yards, Mickelson remembered. "I was trying to fly it 180 and hit a little 7-iron and it took off and flew well past where I wanted it to. That hole, for us, plays really short. For whatever reason, it just doesn't seem to play its yardage."