Sunday at Augusta National, defending Masters Champion Tiger Woods slipped the green jacket over the deserving shoulders of this year’s winner.

Throughout the week, this 11-year professional showed us why he was poised to become the first left-handed player in 40 years to win a major and the first ever to win amongst the blooming azaleas of Augusta National in early April.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2003 Masters Champion …

Mike Weir?

Not exactly the lefty we were all expecting.

Once again this year, just below the top cut of the front page of a star-studded leader board that included the names of Vijay Singh and Ernie Els, was the name of Phil Mickelson.

The free-swinger with a silky-smooth putting stroke broke onto the Tour in 1992, immediately following the completion of his college golf career at Arizona State University. Mickelson’s arrival on the Tour was eagerly awaited after a record-setting college career that included three NCAA Individual Championships and three ‘Nicklaus Awards’ for outstanding college golfer of the year. Mickelson capped off his amateur career in style by winning the 1990 U.S. Amateur.

Now, 11 years after Phil joined the Professional ranks, just a kid with the collar of his golf shirt turned up, ‘Mr. Cool’ has been labeled ‘Mr. Choke’ by many in the golfing community due to his inability to win when it counts. Even 21 Tour victories and four Ryder Cup teams can’t replace the fact that Mickelson has yet to celebrate on 43 consecutive Sundays at major championships.

While most golf fans are quick to label Mickelson’s career thus far unfulfilled due to his futility in the majors, many of those same people also believe that since Phil has had such a successful career outside the majors, a big win is just around the corner.

But from what I’ve seen out of Phil Mickelson, he’s headed on a straight street no bends, no merges and no corners.

At the beginning of this PGA season, I actually belonged to the group of people who believed ‘Lefty’ would have a great chance at ending his major drought this year. Much of that had to do with the fact that world No. 1 Tiger Woods had surgery on his left knee just prior to the season-opening Mercedes Championship.

Tiger has obviously returned since then. In fact, he won his first tournament following the surgery, the Buick Invitational, in mid-February. But on Sunday at Augusta, after a double-bogey six at the third hole, Tiger’s free fall had begun. And on the heels of a 90-foot birdie putt on the second, it appeared that this might be Phil’s time. Even with the door left cracked by the world’s No. 1 player, Mickelson was unable to step through.

By the time the day was over, Mickelson had posted a very respectable 4-under par 68, good enough for third place at 5-under for the tournament, two shots behind the eventual winner, Weir. But in major championships, respectable never gets the job done.

Following his round, Mickelson pulled out the same post-round speech he’s been reciting for the last six years, since Davis Love III passed on the title of ‘Best Player Never to Have Won a Major’ by taking home the 1997 PGA Championship. For some reason, it took me until now to realize that no matter how many tournaments Phil wins, I would be shocked, at this point, if he ever took home a major.

‘I’m not going to measure success in terms of wins and losses,’ Mickelson told CBS after walking off the 18th green Sunday. Apparently the 6’2′ southpaw chooses to measure himself against other golfers like Ty Webb in Caddyshack ‘by height.’

‘They ran away with it, Weir and (Len) Mattiace,’ he said. ‘And I can’t control what they do, but I thought that I played well today and I’m very pleased with 68.’

With the continued use of words like these, Mickelson has talked himself into a corner, pretending that shooting 68 when other players are shooting 65 and breezing past him is just fine with him. Taking the Masters in particular, Mickelson has finished in the top 10 a remarkable seven times without as much as trying on the Green Jacket. One player can only take so many moral victories before even he begins to wonder, ‘When will be my time?’

Mickelson’s general ‘softness’ prevents him from taking the kind of initiative required to win major championships. He’s lost the up-turned collar in recent years, now favoring roll-up turtlenecks, appearing as though he has just gotten into his BMW to leave his nine-to-five job on Wall Street. There’s nothing intimidating about Phil. The edge and the drive that he may have once had are long since gone.

It’s unreasonable to think that a person wouldn’t simply mature, but therein lies another of Lefty’s weaknesses. Back in 1999, Mickelson was dueling in the final group with the late Payne Stewart for the U.S. Open title. Phil’s wife, Amy, was due just around the same time with the couple’s first child and had Amy gone into labor, wherever Phil was on the course, he would leave to be with his wife, thus disqualifying himself.

It’s not a bad thing to be a family man, but when you begin the final round of a major championship in a tie for the lead, your game better be the first and foremost thing on your mind, or else be prepared for a very long day. Amy went into labor the day following the final round of the ’99 Open, and Phil was there for the birth of his child, Amanda Brynne. Another respectable final round ensured that Daddy wouldn’t win a major before the birth of his first child.

Jack Nicklaus’ son Jackie Jr. once said his father could have won twice as many tournaments if he wasn’t so devoted to his family. Jack, like Phil, made a choice to put his family first and golf second and he still wound up with 100 victories in his career, 20 of which were majors. Despite being a nice, likeable guy, Mickelson isn’t capable of Nicklaus-like success unless he finds the killer instinct possessed by his modern-day competitors. Until then, he will continue to hold the most dubious title in golf as best player never to have won a major.

It’s time to dig up the old wardrobe, Phil. And flip the collar up.