Sponsored by:
Phil Mickelson will win the U.S. Open.
There. I said it. Now pick your dentures up off the floor and let me explain.
For starters, he shot a two-under 68 at the St. Jude Classic presented by FedEx on Thursday, his first competitive round since announcing May 20 that his wife Amy has breast cancer.
So what, you say. The U.S. Open bestows golfing immortality; Memphis bestows Elvis Week. And that's true. Even though Mickelson had played TPC Southwind just once since it was renovated in 2004, and even though he made six birdies (plus two bogeys and a double) in his first round in over a month, the St. Jude isn't the U.S. Open.
The year's second major has owned him. The British? Forget it, not his type of golf, anyway. The U.S. Open is almost exactly Phil's bag, emphasis on the "almost." He's finished second four times, never placing worse than T4 in four U.S. Opens held in New York. He's found more ways to lose it than Tiger has to win it.
Nursing a one-shot lead at Winged Foot in 2006, Mickelson needed to hit 3-wood on 18, but didn't have a 3-wood, sprayed his tee shot, hit a worse second shot and made a killing double.
"I am such an idiot," he said, but he should have reserved such harsh judgment.
In 2008, playing the longest ever U.S. Open course at Torrey Pines, Phil brought his 3-wood but in a bolt of counterintuitive lunacy opted against carrying a driver. Playing in front of hometown fans, on a course he'd seen hundreds of times, he never sniffed the lead and even made an absurd 9 on the par-5 13th hole.
It's almost impossible to guess which way Mickelson will go in a major, whereas calling a Tiger victory, especially on the heels of his rock-solid 65 to win the Memorial, is like predicting bad weather on "Ice Road Truckers."
Still, you've got to believe that this is the year for Phil, for many reasons.
• Start with the love. Love's got to be worth at least a half a shot a round, right? Phil will be soaking up a lot of it at Bethpage Black, because even thought he's never lived on the East Coast, the 2002 Bethpage Open is where fans first fell for Phil the Thrill, who never stops smiling and waving even as he turns golf into NASCAR.
New York's Phil-o-meter red lined at 11 when he won the 2005 PGA at Baltusrol. How much higher can it go? It's like a cheetah getting track spikes. Of course there's the possibility that it'll go to Mickelson's head, as it apparently did in San Diego last summer. But with so much to think about off the course, the guess here is that he was right when he said in Memphis, that golf, even U.S. Open golf, will be his sanctuary.
• Tiger is not invincible, and no one knows it better than Phil. Yes, Mickelson finished second to Tiger at the 2002 Bethpage U.S. Open, and it would be foolish to believe Woods will not finish somewhere in the top three next week.
