Mickelson confident despite 'concerns' about wrist

Phil Mickelson is hoping a recent cortizone shot and a black brace will help him cope with his inflamed left wrist this week. But, "I probably won't be pain-free like I had hoped," Mickelson said Tuesday at Oakmont.

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

OAKMONT, Pa. -- Phil Mickelson's tongue was planted firmly in-cheek.

Barely 48 hours before the 107th U.S. Open began, he sat before a standing-room-only crowd in the media center and discussed the lingering affects of the wrist injury he suffered when he came to practice at Oakmont three weeks ago.

"I probably won't be pain-free like I had hoped," said Mickelson, who was wearing a black brace on his left wrist. "But I should be able to have it be manageable as long as I don't aggravate it -- or, hit it in the rough."

Mickelson smiled innocently like a kid caught with not one, but two hands buried in the cookie jar. The once-wild child who won THE PLAYERS Championship with a Sunday round that was a study in consistency knows full well he won't be able to avoid the beastly rough at the U.S. Open this week. No one will.

Mickelson is hoping, though, that there will be enough muscle memory from his recent work with Butch Harmon that produced a pair of third places and the win at the TPC Sawgrass to carry him through this ultra-demanding test.

Mickelson admits he has "concerns." Who wouldn't after having to withdraw from the Memorial Tournament after 11 holes and last week's Stanford St. Jude Classic prior to the first round? Mickelson likes to play his way into a major championship, and those nine holes on Tuesday were his first in two weeks.

The game's No. 1 player, Tiger Woods, can empathize with Lefty's predicament. He had to pull out of his first U.S. Open at Shinnecock in 1995 after only six holes with a wrist injury.

"I couldn't hang on to the club anymore," Woods recalled "His injury, I think it's on his trailing hand, so I think that makes it a little bit easier, but probably not much. Impact hand is always going to take more of the brunt of it, but still, out of this rough, and try and advance the golf ball, even if you're healthy, it's still going to be a difficult test."

Mickelson has seen two doctors since the Memorial and each has made the same diagnosis: inflammation in his wrist. He can't point to a single adventure in Oakmont rough he says may have been twice as long as it is now that did him during that practice round, though.

"It was just numerous shots of jarring at impact, club stopping," Mickelson, who is ranked No. 2 in the world, said. "And then when I went to hit drivers a day later, it just started flaring up."

He tried to play last Tuesday but couldn't, so Mickelson immediately got a cortisone shot. He's been working with a physical therapist named Jim Weatherly, who is a chronic pain specialist, and undergoing a new light procedure designed to stimulate cell growth.

"I think the cortisone shot is kicking in, and the therapy is kicking in, because each day I'm able to ask more," said Mickelson, who has finished second at the U.S. Open four times in his last eight starts, including last year when he was seeking his third straight major title.

He hit balls for the first time Monday, spending about 30 minutes on the range, and on Tuesday Mickelson played the front nine. He plans to play the back on Wednesday -- but he won't be hitting a lot of drivers until his 1:36 p.m. ET date with Adam Scott and Jim Furyk in the first round.

"I think it's important to drive the ball very well here obviously," Mickelson said. "And that's going to be the biggest challenge for me because I haven't been able to practice it as well as go at it 100 percent with confidence that it's not going to flare up again.

"But this should not be a long-term problem if I don't aggravate the inflammation, and this unfortunately isn't the best week for that, given my driving history."

Mickelson, who is known for 10-hour practice rounds, says he "has a really good game plan mapped out" for the U.S. Open. "I'm just not sure if I'm going to be ready to implement it because I haven't had the normal practice and preparation that I would have going into a major," he concluded.

He's been able to chip and putt, though, with no issues and Mickelson says the brace, which hooks around his thumb, isn't intrusive. He'll probably tighten it before he swings and loosen it to encourage better blood circulation after he's hit.

And as for the rough he doesn't plan to hit into? Mickelson will more than likely use a hybrid to try and slide the sole through the tall grass, rather than take an iron that could dig into the ground or stop.

"If I was looking at it optimistically, I would say this will help keep me at one shot at a time, and this wrist brace will help me alleviate any extra wrist break at the top of the swing I may have," said Mickelson, who still would have liked another week to prepare.

"You do the best you can. I'm looking forward to this tournament, and I've been looking forward to getting back here for a year, and looking forward to getting out here the last three weeks, and I've been thinking about this event. I'm excited it's finally here."

Mickelson says he'll have to stay more in the present than he did a year ago at Winged Foot where he went in as the odds-on favorite after victories in the last two majors. He was poised to fulfill that promise, too -- only to see his one-stroke lead evaporate when he hit his drive left into that dreaded rough on the 72nd hole.

Ironically, Mickelson's wrist injury completely altered his pre-tournament press conference. Sportswriters who might have probed his psyche and dredged up that meltdown at Winged Foot focused instead on his health. When the question finally came, though, Mickelson was ready.

"Well, I don't ever want to put it totally behind me," he said. "I still want to look back on it and recall what happened, because I used that analysis to design a game plan to start driving the ball better. Hopefully, my previous weeks of playing at the (EDS Byron) Nelson (Championship), the Wachovia (Championship) and THE PLAYERS Championship has helped me implement that program to get me started.

"If I just forget about it, I'm not taking advantage of the opportunity to take advantage of some weaknesses hopefully turn it into strengths."