In the end a championship that looked like it was going to be dramatically close finished up being a clear three-shot triumph for Phil Mickelson. The left-hander was the most deserving simply because he was the only one who managed to play the final holes without a mistake. Under the suffocating pressure on a golf course as tricky as any in the world that is a more than worthy achievement.

He was steady at the beginning, making regulation numbers at the opening seven holes but a birdie at the long eighth was encouraging but it was the two holes around the turn that set Mickelson up for the run to the finish. At both he hit long hooks into the right trees and from places most would have expected to make well-deserved bogeys he escaped the pines then pitched brilliantly close both times to save fours.

Safely he moved past the dangerous 11th then struck the shots he needed to beat off Lee Westwood, K.J Choi, a fast finishing Anthony Kim and Tiger Woods.

Straight over the flag at the short 12th with a short iron, he ran the medium length putt in for the two and he followed another long hook of the thirteenth tee with an incredible middle iron. Off the pine needles his five iron over the stream finished close enough to all but guarantee the eagle. That he missed the short putt was a surprise but it was a birdie none the less on a hole K.J Choi - at the time the most dangerous looking player - had, in the group ahead, made a six after a drive that left him little more than a couple of hundred meters from the flag.

Mickelson finished the hopes of the rest at the long 15th with two fantastic long shots that ensured the birdie four and from there he only had to avoid the water left of the 16th green and he is far to experienced to make that blunder.

Only Jack Nicklaus, Woods, Arnold Palmer have won more than Mickelson's three Masters and the brilliant play of sixth place man, the 50-year-old Fred Couples, showed that at 40 the champion has more wins he can realistically contemplate.

Lee Westwood was second but not quite as close as he had been at Torrey Pines (2008 US Open) and Turnberry last summer in the Watson Open when both times he was a shot out of a playoff.

He swings as steadily as any of them and surely his time will come in one of these historic events. He lost his game for a while just after the century turned but he worked it out and that is the making of a better player because recovery only comes with understanding and hard work. He can look back at the winners escapes from the forestry around the turn and hope that luck falls his way.

Tiger Woods was judged by his coach to be ‘at 60 per cent' at the beginning of the week and so it turned out. At his best he wins by a handful of shots but drove the ball with so much uncertainty that can only have been guessing where it would finish. It is hard to play golf that way when the longest and perhaps the second most important club is so unreliable. With every other club he looks to have complete control but there can be no doubt he is the worst driver of the few truly great players the game has ever seen.

Ben Hogan, in stark contrast, barely missed fairways and one can only wonder what he would make of the one issue Woods really has on the golf course.

A tie for fourth with Choi was, however, a really impressive performance for a player who has endured the humiliation of the last few months.

Adam Scott was the best of ours in a tie for 18th at 287. Scott has worked through a lousy year, punctuated by a terrific win in the Australian Open at the end of last year and whilst not a startling finish it ought to encourage him.

Geoff Ogilvy was a couple of shots more than Scott and whilst he looks to have the perfect game for Augusta he has never really threatened in the five times he has played.

He was undone by a poor day with the putter on Thursday - as was Scott in his Friday 75 - and there is not a chance of winning without making the putts. It is not just the putter however and Mickelson was right up at the top of the category that measures the number of green in regulation numbers a player finds. Fine hitting takes the pressure off the putter and when it came to the telling final nine holes Mickelson was the one who struck the shots better than those who also hoped.