Lefty aimed at top, no matter what the other guy does
SAN DIEGO -- Like any other San Diego schlub, native son Phil Mickelson showed up at Torrey Pines on Sunday, opened his trunk and hauled his lightweight carry bag out of the car.
He laced on his spikes, hiked the bag over a shoulder and headed off on foot to walk the famed, public South Course, despite the fact it was moments after sunrise and the temperature was around 44 degrees.
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| 'I look at last year and I have mixed emotions,' Phil Mickelson says. (AP) |
"He's jacked up and ready to go," said his coach, Butch Harmon. "I have never seen him this confident to start a year. My only concern is that he's like a race horse, jumping around in the starting gate."
This time, based both on his stellar play last fall and the absence of his top rival, Philly is the thoroughbred class of the PGA Tour track.
"He can't wait to get started," Harmon said. "He's sitting on 'G' and can't wait to get to 'O.'"
The green light finally flashes Thursday for Lefty, who begins his 2010 season at the newly minted Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where he was won three titles in the past and there's nobody named Eldrick in sight.
Mickelson doubled his pre-tournament prep work, adding an extra week of tune-ups with his cadre of coaches, Dave Pelz, Dave Stockton and Harmon. He slimmed down, knowing he'd be playing four of the next six weeks right out of the chute. He's also acutely aware that there's plenty on the table with Tiger Woods out indefinitely, like supplanting the latter atop the world rankings, which would mark a career first.
"Well, my whole career I've been trying to get to No. 1," Mickelson said, laughing, "I just haven't had much success. But this year, whether or not Tiger is in the field, I still believe that this is an opportunity for me to compete in majors, to challenge him. I've had some great head-to-head success in the last year or two, and I expect this year with or without him to be one of the best years of my career."
That's more the pity about Woods' absence. Mickelson had beaten Woods twice down the stretch in the fall, in prominent events in China and Atlanta, and was seemingly poised to make a run at the No. 1 spot regardless of what Woods threw at him. Two weeks ago, in comments that generated some attention, former world No. 1 Ernie Els said Lefty was already playing at least as well as Woody.
"I mean, the way he is hitting the ball, Phil is hitting it as long, or longer than anybody out there," Els said. "He has really been working hard. Now his putting is coming around. I think Phil is probably the man to beat now. Even when Tiger stopped playing, even if you ask Tiger, I think Phil got right to his level throughout his game. I think there is a new guy we got to chase."
Mickelson had endured a brutal 2009 off the course, with his wife and mother being diagnosed with breast cancer in a span of a month. As the family sorted through the medical issues and the situation became less dire, Mickelson scheduled a putting session with Stockton, who had been referred to him by caddie Jim Mackay.
The whole year turned in a blink.
Stockton suggested that Mickelson revert to the hands-forward putting style he had used for years, and the putts began falling again, indeed, just like old-rolled times. The swing work between Harmon and Mickelson had already jelled, and the 14th club was the final piece of the puzzle.
"I look at last year, and I have mixed emotions," Lefty said. "I actually ended the year feeling very grateful about the way the year turned out, because in the middle of the year, there was a lot of uncertainties, and that was the hardest thing to deal with -- golf wasn't really as important.
"Toward of the end of the year as things started to turn around and look up for our family situation, it felt like my game started to come around as well. I wouldn't look upon '09 as being a great year, obviously, but I feel fortunate in how it could have turned out, both golf and off the course."
Make no mistake, everybody expects 2010 to be something special. Mickelson turns 40 in June, and even if Woods had been around, evidence suggested their rivalry had been taken to new heights. The last seven rounds in which they had been paired, including the final 18 at the Masters last spring, Mickelson had beaten Woods five times and tied him in another.
So, while Mickelson had proven that he could consistently look Woods in the eye and take him down, there's a new pressure this season, at least in the early stages while the primary breadwinner is out of the picture. Mickelson is at last the marketing focal point, the lead dog on the PGA Tour sled, not Woods. Unlike in 2008 and early 2009, when Woods was out with knee issues and Mickelson played indifferently at best, Mickelson suddenly seems capable of handling the task this time.
Fairly or not, the weight of a damaged game to some degree has fallen on Mickelson's shoulders.
"I haven't really looked at it from that point of view," he said, "but nobody will be able to fill the shoes that are voided right now."
Yet on the game's marquee, he clearly comes closest. Mickelson is the second-biggest star in the men's game, and while TV ratings when Lefty contends don't remotely approximate the numbers when Woods is in the weekend mix, he's still the sport's second-biggest household name. Mired in awful news for months because of the Woods soap opera and the economy's impact on the sport, Mickelson represents a veritable life preserver -- if he delivers to the degree that he's capable.
Harmon believes that Mickelson can handle the responsibility and says it's not an unfair task to assign to a guy who has never been ranked No. 1, topped the season-ending money list or been voted Player of the Year. Obviously, all of that is on the table with Woods among the missing.
"I don't think that's too much pressure at all," Harmon said. "But he knows he has to win, and win a lot, whether Tiger is there or not. Most people will want to put that pressure on him. He understands that.
"I think all those things, those goals, are attainable, but he still has to play well, no matter who is there."
Getting back to his analogy with the horses, Harmon would be shocked in Phil spit the bit.
"He thinks in his heart that he's playing the best of his career," the coach said. "That counts for plenty."
