US Open Preview Phil Mickelson :: Will it be 25th time lucky?

If the old adage is true and good things really do come to those who wait, there is still, surely, a US Open victory in Phil Mickelson’s future.

The one title standing between the left-hander and the golfing immortality that can be only achieved by completing the career grand slam, the US Open has been particularly unkind to the 44-year-old down the years. He’ll turn 45 tomorrow and it really doesn’t take a genius to predict the present he’d most like to unwrap.

A winner of five major championships – the Masters three times and the Open and PGA once each – Mickelson holds the record for most runner-up finishes in his national open. Six, to be precise.

Since being pipped to the post by Payne Stewart at Pinehurst in 1999, Phil has endured an unrequited love affair with the season’s second major. He loves it but it doesn’t love him back.

“Every time I think of the US Open, I just think of heartbreak,” he said in the immediate aftermath of the most recent of his close shaves at Merion in 2013, where he was overtaken down the stretch by England’s Justin Rose.

As award-winning golf writer Alan Shipnuck brilliantly put it in a Sports Illustrated essay after Mickelson’s fourth runner-up finish, at Winged Foot in 2006, the US Open ‘has become his annual psychodrama’.

So, how it is possible for a player of Mickelson’s unquestionable talent to have come so close to winning the event so often without ever actually doing so?

Some have speculated that it’s because he is simply too aggressive a player, that his ‘gung ho’ approach isn’t compatible with a championship that has regularly been accused of forcing the field into playing overly-conservative golf.

Perhaps Phil just wants it too much. He has never hidden his desire to win the US Open.

There’s definitely some degree of truth in that. Seve Ballesteros had the same mind-set and never finished better than third in the US Open. In all, he managed just three top fives in 18 appearances. Sam Snead (four times a US Open runner-up) and Greg Norman – two other famously attack-minded golfers – also never could crack the tournament. The penalties for missing fairways and greens are so severe and, when all you can see are flagsticks, you’re going to cough up shots. Although, some would argue that when you have a short game as brilliant as Phil’s, why wouldn’t you take on high-risk shots?

There’s also this: perhaps Phil just wants it too much. He has never hidden his desire to win the US Open. It’s his national championship, after all, and the one title that he would most like to have on his CV.

“Growing up here in the United States, this is a tournament that I’ve always felt this patriotism to and would love to win,” he said ahead of last year’s championship.

He admitted that an overwhelming desire to have his name etched on the trophy might have played a part in his six near misses but offered an equally compelling counter argument. “It’s very possible that that’s it,” he conceded. “But I’ve also wanted the Masters and my first major awfully bad. I also wanted a British Open awfully bad.”

Fair enough. Still, the numbers don’t make especially pleasant reading. For example, he has only broken par in the final round of the championship once in 22 attempts and, for those 22 rounds, he is a combined 58-over-par. Trying too hard to get the job done? The stats don’t lie.

He changed the loft on all of his irons – no, really – after opening with a level-par 70 in the first round of the 2002 US Open at Bethpage.

You could also argue that his propensity for tinkering with his game has cost Mickelson on more than one occasion. As he has acknowledged himself, “I’ve done some crazy stuff”.

He has won tournaments with two drivers in the bag, no drivers in the bag, five wedges and the infamous Callaway ‘Frankenwood’ – but he’s also lost tournaments that way, too.

A case in point is surely changing the loft on all of his irons – no, really – after opening with a level-par 70 in the first round of the 2002 US Open at Bethpage. He shot a three-over 73 the next day – and wound up losing by three. “That was one of the dumbest things I’ve done,” he agreed.

Likewise, on the eve of last year’s US Open, he changed his putting grip, going from the ‘regular’ grip to the ‘claw’. “Right now the game plan is X, but it can certainly become Y in a matter of minutes,” he told reporters at Pinehurst. “I’m willing to take any risk and be accountable either way.”

It’s an admirable approach, for sure. It’s also a high-risk one. Put it this way: if his golf game were stocks and shares, Wall Street really would never sleep. It’s what makes him such a popular figure amongst fans, a player who is always a compelling watch, no matter whether he is playing tremendously or terribly. It’s also potentially why he hasn’t won more. That might seem an incredible thing to say about a guy with five majors to his name and who sits ninth on the PGA Tour career wins list, having racked up 42 titles. However, whilst it might seem incredible, it’s also neither inaccurate, nor unfair.

It has often been said that, to win a major championship you need every star in the sky to align above you. Luck, skill, fate – they all play a part. For whatever reason, that has not yet happened for Mickelson in the US Open and, with his chances fast running out, you have to wonder if it ever will.

Encouragingly, perhaps characteristically, he does not seem to have given up any hope, despite all the heartache he has endured.

“The biggest thing for me is that I look at those close calls as a positive sign and I believe that I’ll have more opportunities,” he has said. “When I do, hopefully the experience that I’ve had in the past will allow me to handle it better in the future.

“It’s a career goal of mine to win all four majors.” – Phil Mickelson

On the subject of the career grand slam, he added: “It’s a career goal of mine to win all four majors. I feel like the five players that have done that have separated themselves from the other players throughout all time. It shows that they have a complete game. If I’m able to do that, I feel that I would look upon my own career differently.”

With Rory McIlroy having come up short in his bid to become the sixth member of the most exclusive club in golf at the Masters this year, the spotlight turns to see if Mickelson can seal his place and, in the process, end almost a quarter of a century of trying to win the tournament he most desperately craves. Can he? Will he? We’ll find out this week.

Phil Mickelson :: Is This Going To Be His Week?

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor