Phil Mickelson bounces back from poor Ryder Cup at Safeway Open

Phil Mickelson endured one of his worst weeks ever at the Ryder Cup in Paris, but he’s bouncing back in a big way at the Safeway Open. And the fact is, he’s even surprising himself.

Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction. Phil Mickelson, who couldn’t find the golf course last week in his two Ryder Cup matches, is tied for second heading into the weekend at the Safeway Open. Nobody is more surprised than Mickelson himself.

His warmup for the first round was horrible, he said.

“I was hitting the fence on the range right. I was hitting the fence left. I was hitting it terrible,” he admitted.

Then showing that his sense of humor remained intact through it all, he added, “But you throw on one of these shirts and you can dance and you can hit fairways. It’s awesome.”

He was referring, of course, to his new shirt deal with Mizzen+Main, the one where he did the commercial dancing, dodging golf balls and doing the worm.

Inexplicably, in his first round at Safeway, he shot 65 with six birdies in a row, from the 9th hole to the 14th.

“Honestly, I hit it just terrible (in warmup), and today was kind of an anomaly. Don’t let the good round fool you, I’m not at my best, but today was — a few things clicked and it was fun,” he explained.

"“I hit a lot of really solid short putts. I hit the 11th, really good shot on 11, the par 3, six, seven feet, and it’s just not an easy putt. I hit such a good roll and it tracked in there. Those are the ones that give you momentum. I followed it up with another seven – eight -footer on the very next hole. Those are the ones you have to make to have a good round, and I made a lot of the short ones today.”"

He told a fan at the pro-am not to pick him in any fantasy league. He didn’t even think he’d make the cut.

Yet, here he is after two rounds, tied for second with Ryan Moore and Michael Thompson, three back of leader Brandt Snedker.

"“I had two terrible weeks at BMW and the TOUR Championship with putting,” he admitted, “but what’s happened is I’ve become a great putter week in and week out with a few bad weeks, as opposed to in the past, I’ve been kind of an average putter with a few spikes. I’m back to putting well again and rolling it the way I did all last year.”"

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This week, his routine is to not practice and not to hit any balls. He’s not hitting chips. He’s not hitting any putts. He’s limiting himself to a 45-minute warmup and that’s it. The reason? He’s worn out after the end of the season and the Ryder Cup.

When it comes to looking back at the Ryder Cup, he even credited the Europeans with being smart about their set-up.

"“The Europeans did a great thing. They did the opposite of what we do when we have the Ryder Cup here,” he explained. “The fairways were 14 to 16 yards wide. Ben Hogan, who is the greatest ball-striker of all time, had a five percent margin of error. So if you hit the ball 300 yards, which we all hit it more than that, you need to have a 30-yard wide fairway to be able to hit it.”"

In addition, there was the horrible rough.

“The fact is they had brutal rough, almost unplayable,” he added, “and it’s not the way I play. I don’t play like that. And here I can miss the fairways, I can get shots out of the rough up on the green and it’s playable.”

But rather than be upset about the Ryder Cup week, he was upbeat.

“We had one of the best weeks as far as teammates, as far as working together, camaraderie. We had an awesome week,” he noted.

When asked about the bitterness on the part of some players, he added, “I don’t know what to say because I didn’t see any of that stuff happen. I only saw one of the best weeks and team unities that we’ve had in a long time.”

Overall, Mickelson believes that the team worked well as a team, and that the U.S. was on the way to “deciphering” some things that make the Europeans successful.

“Over the course of 20 years we’re looking at this as a big picture thing,” he explained about the task force approach. “We were 2-8 the last 20 years. Our goal is to take the wins and take the losses and build on them, learn from them and continue on rather than having two-year sporadic start-over-again type deal.”

He said the overall goal was to have the next 20 years be 8-2 instead of 2-8.

“After losing this one, that might not be possible,” he said about the goal of 8-2. “But if we can go and do above .500, 6-4 or 7-3, that would be pretty awesome.”

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However, after enduring the rough at Le Golf National, he has made some new rules for himself.

"“I’m 48. I’m not going to play tournaments with rough like that anymore. It’s a waste of my time,” he said. “I’m going to play courses that are playable and that I can play aggressive, attacking, make a lot of birdies, style of golf I like to play.”"

If Mickelson is able to continue his two-day streak through the weekend, he might even end up in the winner’s circle by accident.

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