The Official 'Double P' Blog

Anyone who thought Phil Mickelson was going to roll Pat Perez on Wednesday was sorely mistaken. #63 gave #2 the scare of this short season yesterday at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson.

Mickelson jumped out to the early start, winning the the first two holes and going 2U. Perez bounced back, taking #3. Both players halved #4 before Mickelson took #5 and remained 2U until #9, which went to PP.

1U at he turn, it remained that way until #13 when Mickelson pushed it back to 2U.

PP fired back with monster putts on #13 and #14, winning both holes, pushing it back to AS and tied up entering #15. Mickelson fired back with a lengthy monster putt of his own, winning the hole and being the difference maker in this match up. Perez and Mickelson halved the final two holes, with #2 needing to make a final putt on #18 for the halve and to take the match.

Winning is obviously goal number one on tournament day. If you're not going to pull the upset, you can't really hope for much more than what Perez accomplished on Wednesday. Toe-to-toe with #2 in the world, Perez never backed down. His scrappy, fiery play was almost enough to take out the winner of last week's Northern Trust Open.

Perez made a name for himself Wednesday and proved his game on a worldwide level.

Next up, the Florida swing and a handful of events where PP has found much recent success. Stay tuned for what could be a very exciting month in the Sunshine State and potentially that long-awaited first PGA Tour victory.