The International means different things to different people. For many, the event, which celebrated its 20th staging this past weekend, is a confusing affair: Hale Irwin once described the scoring system as a strange beast, and the thin air sends drives significantly further than usual. For most players, the weekend tournament was an opportunity to earn some dollars and move up the money list. Others saw a chance to leapfrog a couple of places in the world rankings and land a spot in the field for the WGC-NEC tournament in two weeks’ time. And several hopefuls looking good after Round 3 were desperately trying to grab a last gasp exemption for this week’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J.

For two of the world’s top five golfers, Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson, the International was all about finding some long-lost confidence in time for the year’s final major. Both have slumped of late, and showed signs of improvement over the weekend – but it was Goosen who scored a convincing win in the tournament, and will be chomping at the bit to get to Baltusrol.

Like Mickelson, Goosen played the International in desperate search of a game torn to tatters following inexplicable fourth round collapses at the U.S. and British Opens. During his final-round 69 yesterday, Goosen almost certainly have found what he was looking for. Starting the final round nine points behind third-round leader Brandt Jobe, Goosen fired four birdies over the front nine and birdied the 17th to win the tournament by one.

What separated Goosen from the field was some truly outstanding putting. The fifth ranked player in the world was middling with the driver, with an average punt of over 325 yards; his driving accuracy and iron play were nothing more than adequate. But with just one three-putt and 37 single-putt greens, Goosen captured his sixth PGA tour victory and 23rd worldwide.

Goosen must now be considered one of the favorites for the PGA Championship. His putter is warming up nicely, he is finding the sweet spot with the driver, and he is straighter off the tee than his closet rivals. All he has to do now, it seems, is get over his Tiger Woods complex.

As for Mickelson, he hadn’t had a decent finish since the Wachovia Championship in early May, and hadn’t won since the rain shortened BellSouth Classic a month before that. His five appearances prior to the International had yielded nothing better than a tie for 14th at the Byron Nelson, and major failures at the U.S. and British Opens made last year’s sustained excellence in the big four (one win and four top-six finishes) a vague and distant memory.

After nine holes of Saturday’s second round (Thursday’s torrential rain meant the first round didn’t start until Friday), it looked like Mickelson’s dry spell would continue. At +7 for the tournament, Lefty was in danger of heading to Baltusrol seriously short on positive energy. But a back nine of 31 – good for a gain of 10 points – sent him raging up the leader board and into contention. A disappointing five-bogey, one birdie third round yesterday morning gave him too much to do in Round 4 to actually win, but he earned the fourth-best score of the day, and scraped into a tie for 10th, his eighth top-10 finish of the year.

Mickelson’s performance yesterday did a lot to convince observers, and more importantly Mickelson himself, that his game is not too far gone to contend at Baltusrol. But if he is to be a factor this week, he will probably have to find the short grass more than 64.3% of the time, as he did at Castle Pines, and certainly find more than the 57.9% of fairways he was averaging before the International. Baltusrol will likely not tolerate such wayward driving. Mickelson’s considerable length (an average of 300.5 yards this year) will be a major asset, of course, but to find the pins on such a long course (7,392 yards) he will need to play his approach shots from the fairway in order to get sufficient height and spin.

His putting will need some attention too. At the International, Mickelson tallied five three-putts, several missed 5- and 6-footers, and an overall average of 1.804 putts per green in regulation. All told, it was a wretched week on the greens. He is clearly in need of another session with short-game coach Dave Pelz and a few hours on the putting green working on his hole-circling drill.

After a fairly dismal summer thus far, Mickelson needed a great performance in Colorado to increase the probability of his adding a second major to his Masters win of 2004. His streaky form, and the eventual tie for 10th won’t quite have everyone logging on to internet betting sites to back him, but he does have some justification, at least, in feeling quietly confident.