Time is running out for Phil Mickelson
LA QUINTA, Calif. – Phil Mickelson is on the clock. In June, he will turn 42 years old. That's getting up there in golf. Men who reach that age, with the exception of Vijay Singh, Steve Stricker, and the great Sam Snead decades ago, do not win a lot of golf tournaments. Things happen. The body breaks down. The mind wanders. It's called growing old.
Which is why this season is so critical for Mickelson. He's got a legacy to craft, and he can't do it the way he has played the last two years, with two victories in 41 starts. He needs more wins, especially majors. Four majors is nothing to belittle – Fred Couples and Davis Love III, two tremendous talents, have only one apiece – but Mickelson should have close to double that amount by this point in his career. He's that skilled. He gave a few away and he knows it.
Will this year be any different? Hard to say, of course, but if his season debut on Thursday in the first round of the Humana Challenge is any indication, Mickelson has a ways to go.
He recorded a two-over 74 at La Quinta Country Club on a sunny, windless day when 21 players shot 66 or lower at one of the tournament's three courses, giving him no chance to make a run this week. You can come back from a 74 at Sawgrass or Augusta or at any of the demanding U.S. Open venues. You can't come back from a 74 in this event, reduced from five to four rounds this year, where at least a dozen or so guys traditionally go low every day. Of the 144 players in the field, Mickelson beat only seven of them.
Most dispiriting of all were the drives on Nos. 10 and 14, both fading way left, both barely out of bounds, and both eerily similar to the most devastating error of his career, the tee shot on the final hole which cost him the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot.
The first was so close to the white stakes that it required a tour official, with help from Mickelson and playing partner David Toms, to attach a piece of white string between posts because the ball was nestled in a resident's yard and needed to be totally on the inside side of the string. The effort took several minutes. Mickelson, with the gallery rooting him on, even directed the official to try it another way after the initial ruling went against him. It was to no avail. The ball was out by inches, resulting in a double bogey.
At No. 14, the tee shot was OB by a couple of feet, this time leading to a triple. One could see the life come out of Mickelson, who had seemed so animated the hole before when he, Toms and the two amateurs in the group were paid a visit by former President Bill Clinton, whose foundation is a partner with Humana in sponsoring the event.
Mickelson, in typical fashion, was not discouraged by his performance.
"Well, it's only one round," he said. "I've been playing so well that &hellip that I'm not going to let one round affect my outlook. It's a long tournament, a long week, a long month, a long year, and one round is just getting started."
Perhaps. And perhaps the work he did in the offseason with his mental coach, Julie Elion, who was in the gallery at La Quinta – enjoy the process, be patient, love the next shot, etc. – will pay off. And perhaps the confidence he feels in his putting stroke – "I feel I can make everything on the greens" – will prove prophetic. Certainly no one will be surprised.
At the same time, we have heard optimistic projections from Mickelson before. We have seen him experiment with new putters (even a belly putter late last year) and new drivers. Only his game didn't take off – at least not reaching the high standards he has set for himself, and thus the ones he must be held to.
To be fair, of course, he's had a lot more to worry about in the last couple of years than his golf game – specifically, the health of his wife, Amy, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. It's a topic, though, that did not come up on Thursday. The Mickelson family, in fact, enjoyed some of their best trips ever during the offseason, such as a ski vacation in Montana.
"Kids made great strides in their skiing ability, and we all had a lot of fun," he said.
Nobody, of course, believes Mickelson isn't capable of making great strides of his own.
"Other than two shots, he played a good round," Toms said. "He seems like he still has the fire to work."
Fire might not be enough. The PGA Tour is filled with tons of promising talents who have more than a decade on him, along with Tiger Woods who showed signs late in 2011 that his game might be coming back. Putting another major on the Mickelson resume is far from automatic.
Time is definitely not on his side.
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