Will Phil Mickelson’s New Discipline Produce U.S. Open Victory?

Phil Mickelson, at age 50, is still in search of a U.S. Open title. The reason it is important is that winning it would give him the career grand slam. He would be one of just six to have that distinction, the others being, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Gary Player.

A month ago, it would have sounded ridiculous to say that he had a chance. But then he won the PGA Championship on an extreme golf course, Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, played just three weeks ago. And, believe me, the Ocean Course is a ton tougher than Torrey Pines, no matter what they do to it.

Torrey Pines Golf Links is a public course in Mickelson’s hometown. He grew up playing it. But it has changed since then.

“It’s a lot different than when I grew up 35 years ago,” Mickelson said to media before the U.S. Open.

It’s longer, the trees are cut down or cut back to expose the ocean views and the troublesome canyons now frame several of the fairways. Then there are the sandstone cliffs where the only thing between a golfer and the water is 300 feet of air. It’s not a place where you want to have vertigo or lose balance in a backswing.

In addition, this week, the course plays differently than it does for the Farmers Insurance Open. As far as the differences, February is typically wetter, he noted, and the fairways are softer, and the course plays longer.

“With the fairways being contoured the way they are and being firm now, they’re going to be more difficult to hit. You’ve got to shape it into the fairways,” Mickelson noted.

The greens are firming up, as well. However, the June Gloom, a traditional June weather condition in California, is providing fog and mist draped vistas. The Gloom is also pretty hard to hit through. Arron Oberholser on Golf Channel said he grew up being able to only hit an 7-iron 150 yards in the spring in northern California because no matter how hard he hit it, the air would only allow that much distance. It is thick, heavy and a perfect Sherlock Holmes murder investigation backdrop.

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While Mickelson typically doesn’t play Torrey Pines in advance of the Farmers Insurance Open, he has made a special effort to get reacquainted with the golf course before this U.S. Open. Realistically, this is one of his two best chances to secure the title in the next five years, if he is able to do it at all.

Mickelson currently has more second places at the U.S. Open than any player in history. They came in 1999 ( Pinehurst No. 2), 2002 ( Bethpage Black), 2004 (Shinnecock Hills), 2006 ( Winged Foot), 2009 ( Bethpage Black) and 2013 (Merion).

Upcomin g U.S. Open sites are no picnic. The next four – and he will be exempt for all of them – are The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts; LA North Country Club’s North Course, Pinehurst No. 2 and Oakmont. Pinehurst, where he finished second in 1999, will be played when he is nearing his 54th birthday. That could be a few candles on the cake too far.

In preparation for this year’s U.S. Open, he’s made an effort to educate himself on the changes to the course.

“I spent a lot of hours out here on the greens last week to see if I can get that local knowledge again, and we’ll see how it goes,” he said philosophically.

The victory at the PGA helped him, game-wise.

“I’m hopeful that some of the things that I had learned heading in (to the PGA) will carry over and give me some more opportunities this summer, because I feel like I’m playing some good golf,” he added.

He pointed out the kind of improvements athletes see in their golf games, himself included, can be seen as a series of steps or plateaus. You might work hard and see nothing, and then all of a sudden, there’s a sudden improvement. He called it a spike.

“That spike came at the PGA,” he explained. “Hopefully, I’ll continue to play at a new plateau, at a little bit higher level, because some things started to click.”

For now, he has turned off his phone, quieted external noise, eliminated social media distractions.

“I’ve shut off a lot of the other stuff to where I can kind of focus in on this week and really give it my best chance to try to play my best,” he said.

And the club that worked so well at the PGA Championship is in the bag. The 2-wood. It’s a new one, but as identical as they can make it to the one he used at the PGA.

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