In most professional sports, a paunch squeezed into tacky pants does not an athlete make. But such is the charm of golf. Or was, at least, until that upstart Tiger Woods arrived with a superior game, and then sharpened it by adopting a workout regimen that made him even longer off the tees and more precise around the greens. Almost immediately, all the top players seemed to hit the gym, except a few notable physiques, including Phil Mickelson. "Every time he walked you could see his breasts bouncing all over the place!" Gary Player, the Jack LaLanne of golf, lovingly recalls of the world's No. 2.
But at the start of this season Mickelson (who is six foot three) showed up looking happy, healthy, and 20 pounds lighter. Extra flab was the norm for a man who ordered a medley of gravy-drenched fried food for the champions' dinner after winning his second Masters in 2006. For the past three months, however, Mickelson has been buckling down with sports trainer Sean Cochran. "Once the younger players started to come on tour, he realized that he had to start working out to maintain longevity in his career," Cochran explains. The 38-year-old Mickelson also decided it was time for a new swing, which is maintained by Cochran's program: "There are certain levels of flexibility, balance, muscular strength, and power required of the body to execute the golf swing correctly. What we try to do is exponentially increase those components so he can become a better golfer — hit the ball farther, create more club-head speed, and have the stamina to play back-to-back rounds and not become fatigued." Revealed for the first time, here's how Cochran is helping Lefty stay on the straight and narrow.
