Lefty Really Does Think He Grew Taller

Jimmy Burch has an interview with Phil Mickelson in the Star-Telegram ahead of the Crowne Plaza Invitational. Mickelson is generally pretty accessible, but this exclusive may have been helped along by Mickelson's endorsement deal with the hotel chain.

Why the move to a longer-shafted putter? I've known that I've become a half-inch, inch taller for a few years... through some of the stretching and stuff [but] I hadn't really made an adjustment to that. I just thought [after the Masters], 'Gosh, I'm not putting well and now is the time to make an adjustment if I'm going to go to a longer putter.' So when I came back and started working on it, I just started with a 35-inch putter rather than a 33 1/2 .

What kind of stretching do you do to increase your height? Just legs, low back, stuff like that. It has helped the elongation through motion. It's like a pitcher when he throws. He can't get his arm into certain positions statically when he throws a baseball. It's the same thing as using motion to stretch his length. It helped.

Have the stretching exercises led to shaft changes with any clubs other than your putter? Not really. But my posture has been more consistent and easier to hold throughout the swing, so that's led to a little bit more consistent ball-striking.

I am still of the mind that Mickelson just has better posture because he no longer has to slouch much due to a gut. That will make anyone stand taller. A whole inch, maybe not. Even still, why bump up the putter length 1.5 inches when he is convinced he grew no more than 1 inch? Test this guy for HGH. Just kidding, because there is no viable test for the substance.

It should be mentioned that Mickelson changed his height to 6'3" from 6'2" in the Tour media guide. That means that he has thought this all season and is just getting the word out now to everyone.