Phil Mickelson takes his lifetime ambition of winning the US Open title to Tacoma, Washington State this week.
He knows the sands of time are running out on him fulfilling that dream
Six times a runner-up in the event two more than anyone in its history you have to wonder if seeds of doubt are beginning to haunt him.
Is he destined to come up one short of achieving golf’s Grand Slam of Majors, as happened to his boyhood heroes Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, and Tom Watson?
Mickelson turns 45 on Tuesday, and admits his second spot at Augusta apart, it has been a start-stop-start-again season.
“In the early part of the year, I was able to work on my game and practice but I putted terribly,” Mickelson laments.
“I could putt as great as possible back home. But when you come out on Thursday, you need to make putts, see the right line, get the right speed and if everything matches up, you’re fine.
“If not…”
Phil has no such problems with this year’s US Open venue, which is causing much controversy Stateside.
He says: “I really like Chambers Bay. The first time you play it, it’s like St Andrews you don’t know where to go,”
“It’s everything like a British Open with the exact same grasses. I’ve never seen greens with fescue grass in the States.
“The ball runs like the British, you’re hitting the same shots as the British so it’s like a British Open in the USA.
“It also reminds me of Castle Stuart, where I won the Scottish Open in 2013. It’s a kind of a modern-day, plenty-of-room links golf course, up to scale on modern-day technology.”
Mickelson added the Claret Jug to that success in Scotland two years ago, underlining he had finally mastered the art of links golf. And not even the prospect of mixing it with the young lions over Chambers Bay’s strength-sapping lay-out that could entail walking as much as 30 miles over four days deters Mickelson.
He continues: “Yes, it’s a significantly different game than 20-plus years ago when I first came out.
“Back then, the golf ball spun so much that if you swung too fast, the sidespin would make the ball curve all over the place. Now the game has changed hugely.
“Guys are in better shape, they can swing harder because the equipment now accommodates greater speed and the modern ball goes straight.
“Over the last couple years, I’ve not had the speed that I am accustomed to, but now it is back again to where I was.”
All of which adds up to a pretty confident Mickelson teeing it up on Thursday, and a disappointing finish to Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial tournament last weekend has done nothing to dampen his expectations.
“It is still the US Open”, he points out. “So there will be a lot of strategy that nullifies the power players.
“It makes the short iron play, distance control, and ability to get to tucked pins much more important, and that happens to be the strength of my game.”
Mickelson was back home in California last weekend, having flown from Ohio before piloting his jet back east to Memphis for the St Jude Classic.
He is nothing if not determined.
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