CHARLOTTE – Phil Mickelson electrified yesterday’s final round of the Wachovia Championship at the Quail Hollow Club before he was electrocuted by his nemesis for the week, the treacherous 17th hole.

Mickelson turned what looked like a Sergio Garcia walkover into an actual tournament as he charged up the leaderboard.

As he stood at the 17th tee facing the tricky 217-yard par-3 surrounded on the left by water, Mickelson was 9-under for his round and 8-under for the tournament, just three shots behind Garcia’s lead.

As word spread throughout the course, there were murmurs everywhere about Mickelson’s spirited final-round run.

The excitement all came to an anticlimactic halt, though, when Mickelson blocked his 7-iron tee shot into the water on 17 and double bogeyed the hole to fall out of contention at 6-under.

The double was Mickelson’s third of the week on No. 17, where he was an astonishing 7-over-par for the tournament.

Mickelson then bogeyed 18 to fall to 5-under for the tournament and completed a round of 66 that once seemed headed toward shattering the course record of 64.

“It was a fun round,” Mickelson said. “I got it going, made nine birdies. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish well on 17 and 18. I’m not going to let one hole ruin my day. It’s unfortunate – I had a chance to win. For whatever reason that hole (17) just gave me fits this week.”

Mickelson recalled the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, where he played the par-5 16th hole in 6-over-par that year as a similar circumstance.

On Thursday, Mickelson bogeyed 17. On Friday, he flew a 6-iron into the water and doubled it. On Saturday, he hit his tee shot well right, hit a poor chip and then three-putted for double. Yesterday, his 7-iron tee shot wasn’t even close to hitting land.

“I just blocked it,” he said.