ShareThisIn last year's United States Open, Tiger Woods turned in perhaps his most unforgettable performance, outlasting Rocco Mediate in a dramatic 19-hole Monday playoff despite playing on a broken leg.
But could this week's 109th U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. give us an even more dramatic finish? Well, that depends on the always-unpredictable Phil Mickelson.
When it comes to the Open, Mickelson is beyond star-crossed -- as his record four second-place finishes prove. He's lost just about every way possible -- long putts by opponents (the late Payne Stewart on 18 on Sunday in 1999 at Pinehurst), his own putting woes (2004 at Shinnecock) and by his own ridiculously bad decision-making ("I'm such an idiot,'' Mickelson exclaimed following the infamous double-bogey on the final hole at Winged Foot three years ago).
So it's easy to dismiss Mickelson, the second-ranked player in the world, at Bethpage. Since the Winged Foot meltdown, "Lefty'' has played 11 majors, missing the cut twice. His average finish in the other nine? 15th. Only at this year's Masters did Mickelson finish within four shots of the winner during that span.
And, of course, there's the question of how much concentration Mickelson will have considering his wife Amy is awaiting treatment for breast cancer.
Yet we say that Mickelson has two intangibles all athletes crave to have on their side in pressure moment: pure emotion and a home field advantage.
It is hard to explain the love affair New York galleries have with Mickelson. We were there at Winged Foot, and the adulation poured on him from outside the ropes bordered on hysteria. It's like Mickelson, a West Coast guy, was Derek Jeter, Rudy Giuliani and The Beatles all rolled into one.
And make no mistake, Mickelson, who has shown to be more than a tad insecure at times, will feed off that support. If Mickelson were to actually win his first Open -- the tournament he says "I've dreamed of winning since I was a boy'' -- before the New York crowds, the cheers might be the loudest ever at a golf tournament.
Finally, Mickelson's go-for-broke style actually makes sense this time at Bethpage, where he finished second three shots behind Woods in 2002, the last time the Open was there. There is speculation that this will be Phil's final 2009 tournament with him taking the rest of the year off to be with his three children as Amy faces surgery next month.
If that's the case, then why not let it all hang out? Trying to grind it out rarely works for Mickelson at the U.S. Open, anyway.
As he turns 39 on Tuesday, Mickelson remains golf's enigma. He'll never be the cold-blooded killer champion that Tiger is. But his 36 career wins (including three majors) rank second among active PGA players and 12th all-time. So there's no way he squandered his talent the way a Greg Norman or John Daly did. We've always wondered where Mickelson would have ranked in the game's all-time elite if Woods hadn't burst on the scene in 1996.
There is so much to like in Mickelson -- his gracious interaction with fans and the media, his noted generosity with cash and his entertaining swashbuckling game. There is also much that makes you shake your head -- his egregious on-course errors in judgment, his reputation among some tour players as a bit of a phony and his bizarre statements (Woods uses "inferior equipment,'' Mickelson's own "layer of subcutaneous fat,'' etc.)
Just maybe concern over Amy's condition will make Mickelson relax this time. Because no matter where he finishes, it's not life or death, after all.
(E-mail John Lindsay at lindsayj(at)shns.com)
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