Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 11

SPORTS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2005 BS CLEVELAND BROWNS GOLF: PGA TOUR NATIONAL PRO-AM in PUBLICATIONS, INC. Mickelson just keeps everyone guessing Ml J- A 7 Associated Press Phil Mickelson (center) gets the glad hand from the gallery following the third round of last week's PGA Tour FBR Open In Scottsdale, Ariz. Mickelson, one of the game's most exciting players and the defending Masters champion, won the tournament by five shots but is always seeking to alter his game much to the enjoyment of the fans. Associated Preu New Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel gestures to a reporter during an Introductory press conference at the Browns' training facility In Berea, Ohio, Tuesday. Crennel, previously the New England defensive coordinator, was officially hired as the 13th coach in Browns history Crennel named new coach of Browns being able to play at this level." In some respects, the statistics bear that out.

Mickelson hit 63.6 percent of his fairways last year through the PGA Championship, when he won twice and had a chance to win all four majors. By the end of the year, he had dipped to 59.9 percent. And from the PGA Championship in August through the FBR Open last week, he has hit 58.5 percent of the fairways. Mickelson has been testing his new Callaway equipment since September to find which driver-ball combination allows him to hit it straight without sacrificing distance He believes he has figured it out, and his victory Sunday after starting the year with two finishes out of the top 10 gave him good vibes heading to Pebble Beach. "I can't wait for next week," he said.

"I can't wait to get out to the course and practice. I'm loving playing and ecstatic about the way things are set up in my bag." If the emphasis has returned to distance, that wouldn't be such a bad thing. Singh smashes driver off just about every tee, figuring that if he lands in the rough, he can still make par at worst by being that much closer to the green. Woods is longer off the tee than he has been the past several years; his swing coach, Hank Haney, said power is important for Woods to regain his dominance As for the go-for-broke style that Mickelson adores? He's right. That will never change Mickelson has such supreme confidence that he only sees possibilities, not consequences.

By DOUG FERGUSON APGolt Writer PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -Phil Mickelson keeps everyone guessing. Three years ago, he defiantly said he would never change his risk-taking, jaw-dropping style on the golf course, even if that meant never winning a major. Last year, he was so determined to keep his tee shots in the short grass that he went to a controlled fade off the tee, although that meant giving up distance He couldn't argue with the results. Mickelson won his first major at the Masters, and was five shots away from a chance to win the Grand Slam.

What will Phil do next? He won the FBR Open by a career-high five shots on Sunday, making birdies from the desert and saving par after hitting into the water. When it was over, someone asked him if hitting fairways was overrated. "No, it's certainly important. Don't get me wrong," he said. "It's not overrated, but I think distance is underrated right now.

I think that you've got to move the ball out there." His short game was as phenomenal as ever, but what made Phoenix such a fun week for Mickelson was the long ball. "I drove the ball a lot longer than I think I have in years, and was able to have a lot of short irons in," he said. Mickelson went with a 3-wood off the tee on the par-5 13th because he was belting his driver in the 340-yard range, and he needed something less to land in the fat part of the fairway. Never mind that he pulled it into the desert; he still had a shot to the green and wound up with a birdie Then on the 14th, he felt he needed to "chip a driver." "I just want to take 40, 50 yards off of it and get it out there about 290," Mickelson said. That sounds a lot like the Mickelson of old, like the time he talked about taking "8 yards off a stock driver" on the par-4 eighth hole at Bay Hill.

But that's one thing that makes Mickelson so fascinating and at times so hard to figure out. A year ago, the focus was on fairways. "Because I've kept it in play, the course seems to be so much easier," Mickelson said last year when he was in contention every Sunday leading to his Masters victory. "I think after 33 years, I've figured it out." How quickly he forgets. Mickelson was looking at the statistics from last year when he noticed he had a higher percentage of fairways hit than the three guys he was chasing Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els.

But he trailed all of them in distance "When I had sacrificed 15 yards last year, I knew that I needed to make a change," Mickelson said after winning in Phoenix. "Ultimately, you saw the change in September. But I knew that I had to do that if I wanted to get back to WWte Vinyl Double Hun8 tw'l Rplacement Windows rnii "Stny ttM Bt lor 217-233-1333 MfcwI-tM-Tlfr-UM VWI sst sfcowreon at Mil State 121 KerUl ML Dm, 12341 IreludM Window Stanton! MaHahon. Financing availato. mmmm Metal forc Conversation Hearts Plarp.

a Valentine ad in the Journal GazetteTimes- Place a Valentine ad in the Journal GazetteTimes- Courier Classifieds yuur uwh special way yvu can use uus easy anu i inexpensive way to tell that special someone that VSi-W yucare- These special messages will publish on Saturday, February 12th. two of his three daughters. Crennel, who began his pro coaching career with the New York Giants in 1981, was passed over for head coaching jobs in the past. Last year, he interviewed with several teams, including Buffalo, Oakland and Chicago. The year before, he spoke with San Francisco about the job that eventually went to Dennis Erickson.

But after the Browns interviewed him on Jan. 7, they knew Crennel was their guy. Except for a small window during the Patriots' postseason bye week, league rules prohibited the Browns from having any discussions with Crennel while New England was still playing. The secret was out, though, and if the Browns were having any doubts about Crennel as their choice, he reassured them by devising defensive schemes that stopped Indianapolis and Pittsburgh in the AFC playoffs. On Sunday, the Patriots barely had another Vince Lombard! Trophy in their grasp following a win over Philadelphia in Jacksonville, when Browns president John Collins called Crennel to offer him the job.

Crennel's first priorities in Cleveland will be to hire assistants and get to know general manager Phil Savage. The Browns are counting on the Crennel-Savage combination to reverse six years of questionable draft picks and turmoil. Crennel will reportedly bring in Maurice Carthon from Dallas as his offensive coordinator, and Patriots defensive backs coach Eric Mangini is the leading candidate to run Cleveland's defense. That was Crennel's job with Cleveland in 2000 under Chris Palmer. The Browns haven't improved much since Crennel left, and he'll be faced with some major decisions in his first weeks on the job.

One is the future of quarterback Jeff Garcia, who struggled in his first season in Cleveland after signing a four-year, $25 million free agent deal last March. Garcia is due a $500,000 roster bonus on March 1. Some people blame his bad shots on poor decisions. Mickelson attributes them to poor execution. One such occasion was Pebble Beach four years ago.

Mickelson was one shot behind on the par-5 18th and 257 yards from the green. Instead of relying on his wedge game the best on tour he hit driver off the deck with hopes of making an eagle, or at least a simple birdie Instead, he put it in the Pacific Ocean and made double bogey. There are three things about Mickelson that fall into the category of death and taxes. His wedge game is among the best. Even when he was missing fairways in Phoenix, Mickelson knew that he only had to get it around the green to save par, or even make birdie In Js i I 4 To: Opening like a bod of Gold, Cast In iove'i mold You entered our life bright and bold; On this Valentine's Day I want to unfold, All the emotions that we hold, like a perfect tale yet to be toWl -1x3 $37M Too Cool! One Only Forever Yours Pretty Nice iSweet Heart Hug Mo Vi.

Hj BEREA, Ohio (AP) -Romeo Crennel's long wait is over. An assistant coach for 35 years, he's finally in charge. Fresh from winning a third Super Bowl title as New England's defensive coordinator, Crennel was introduced Tuesday as coach of the Cleveland Browns, a team with far more imperfections than the one he left. "I've been somewhat successful as a position coach. Now being able to take the reins of a team and try to run a whole team, that's special," Crennel said at a news conference.

"I'm excited about it. I want to be successful, and I want to win and that's what I want to try to bring to Cleveland, a winning football team." The 57-year-old Crennel is the 11th full-time coach in Browns history and the team's first black coach. He's the NFL's sixth minority coach, but the only one with a Super BowJ ring for each finger of one hand. Crennel received a five-year, $11 million contract from the Browns, who are coming off a disastrous 4-12 season that was scuttled by major injuries and highlighted by the resignation of Butch Davis on Nov. 30.

In hiring Crennel, the Browns, who are just 30-66 with one playoff appearance since returning to the league in 1999, selected an older, more experienced coach instead of going for an up-and-coming college candidate, as they did in 2001 when they plucked Davis from the University of Miami. Crennel joins Tony Dungy of Indianapolis, Marvin Lewis of Cincinnati, Dennis Green of Arizona, Herman Edwards of the New York Jets and Lovie Smith of Chicago among the league's black head coaches. As the Browns introduced Crennel, the Patriots celebrated in a parade through the streets of Boston. But Crennel knew he was in the right place. "Considering the alternative, this is a good one to be at," said Crennel, who was joined at the news conference by his wife, Rosemary, and Please and win someone's heart.

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