Phil Mickelson’s struggles are progress at US Open

If the weather cooperates, the only major tournament to ellude American golfer could actually be within his grasp as he takes aim at a historic career slam, writes Steve Elling.

Phil Mickelson of the US speaks at his news conference during the 2014 US Open Championship on the Pinehurst No. 2 course at the Pinehurst Resort and Country Club in Pinehurst, North Carolina, on JuneShow more

Phil Mickelson considered the query briefly, then answered with a mix of candour and comedy.
His personal track record at the US Open, where he has finished second a record-obliterating six times, has become perhaps the game's major source of fascination. Even for indefatigable Phil, who could smile his way through a hurricane, looking back is like pulling the bandage off a wound.
Read more: Six degrees of desolation for Phil Mickelson at the US Open
"The one analysis I've made is that of those six second-place finishes, five of them, it rained," Mickelson said on Wednesday, smiling. "So I'm pulling for rain."
Fittingly, he has this week returned to the wellspring, where the personal deluge began 15 years ago. At the 1999 US Open, before Mickelson had claimed his first major title, he was beaten in a riveting duel with the late Payne Stewart, when the latter one-putted the last three holes to beat Mickelson by a shot.
It marked the first of five back-nine leads that Mickelson would waste in the final round of the American national championship and would become the watershed moment on Mickelson's US Open resume. Last summer, after he bungled away yet another Sunday lead to finish second at Merion, he all but exhaled a telling observation.
"Every time I think of the US Open," Mickelson said, "I think of heartbreak."
The infarctions have only been underscored over the past 12 months. With a surprise victory in the British Open last July, Mickelson moved one step shy of becoming the sixth player to complete the modern career slam, which would put him among the Olympian figures of the game: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen.
With his British win at Muirfield, what had largely been a source of wonderment and amusement for fans moved to the front burner this season, especially with Tiger Woods sidelined with a back issue. As a case in point, the opening question of Mickelson's first press session at his first event of the year, in Abu Dhabi in January, was about the US Open, which was five months away.
To his credit, Mickelson has embraced the challenge, if not given it a peck on the cheek.
Three weeks ago, he told ESPN: "I'm going to win at least one US Open, maybe two. It's possible. Look, remember when people were saying, 'When are you going to win a major'? And I kept saying, 'I don't want to win just one major. I want to win multiple majors'.
"And I did. So now people are saying, 'When are you going to win a US Open?' and I'm saying, 'I want to win multiple US Opens'."
That said, at no point in his Hall of Fame career has a major victory seemed less likely. Mickelson has not mustered a top-10 finish this season on the PGA Tour, the worst start of his career. His putting is in such disarray, he switched to a claw grip last weekend, which is usually interpreted as a sign of desperation.
Then there is the question of career scar tissue. No doubt, Mickelson has had a couple of US Open titles wrested from his hands, but others he gave away.
He led by a stroke with three holes to play in 1999 and lost to Stewart, was up by a shot with two holes left in 2004 and lost to Retief Goosen, and held a one-stroke edge with one hole remaining in 2006 before handing the title to Geoff Ogilvy. In the latter two, he theatrically double-bogeyed the 71st and 72nd holes, respectively.
In terms of discomforting moments, cringes and averted gazes, Mickelson's US Open chase is akin to six-part horror franchise, Saw. A running US Open joke is that while the rest of the field drives courtesy cars to work this week, Phil takes an ambulance.
Mickelson, who has won five major titles, is dragging around some personal baggage, too. Two weeks ago, he was linked to a federal insider-trading probe and was met after a round at the Memorial Tournament by two government investigators.
Appropriately enough, Mickelson's purchase of Clorox stock three years ago is under a microscope – if he blows another win this week, no amount of bleach will remove the blemish.
Yet, despite the US Open's punishing layouts and the state of Mickelson's mercurial game, few players have been so steadily in contention.
"I think the biggest thing for me is, I look at those close calls as a positive sign for having given myself so many opportunities," he said this week. "Hopefully, the experience that I've had in the past will allow me to handle it better in the future."
How much future remains? Second only to Woods in popularity and major wins among active players, Mickelson turns 44 on Monday and is making his 24th US Open start. The great Sam Snead finished second four times in the event, the former record for futility, which kept him from completing a career slam. Clearly, Mickelson's six second finishes represents another pain threshold altogether.
Still, his resilience has been remarkable. After blowing the back-nine lead at Merion last June in what he characterised as his most painful Open loss, he won the British Open a month later. Consider his legacy if Mickelson wins, becoming one of the most-decorated players in the history of the game while playing in an era of unsurpassed global depth.
"It would be difficult not to put him in the top-10 players of all time," former Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger said.
When it comes to Mickelson's US Open travails, difficult is just the right term.
"It would mean a lot to me," he said. "I would look at myself, I would look at my career, in a whole different light if I were able to get that fourth one."
By the way, the forecast for Pinehurst this weekend is for a chance of rain on all four days.
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