Phil Mickelson managed only two birdies on a chilly day at Torrey Pines.(How/Getty Images)

Mickelson retains humor after disastrous quad at No. 13 in third round

By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Phil Mickelson has had some poor holes at his home course, Torrey Pines South, in the past. He's even had some as poor as the quadruple-bogey 9 on the par-5 13th hole that spelled the end for him Saturday in the 108th U.S. Open.

"I've had a nine on 13 (before). I was eight years old, but I have had a nine there," he said.

This U.S. Open is lost, but at least the No. 2 player in the world hadn't lost his sense of humor.

Needing to somehow get back around par for the championship, a listless Mickelson instead went backwards Saturday with a 5-over-par 76 and dropped back to 9 over for the championship. Though he couldn't stop raving about the golf course and the setup, he also couldn't hide his dejection.

Mickelson's transcript
Round 3 notebook
Mickelson's scorecard

"I think that this has been the best U.S. Open setup I've ever seen. I think it's an exciting Open," Mickelson, who turns 38 on Monday, said. "I'm certainly disappointed that I'm not in the mix right now. That was the goal. So I'm going to come out tomorrow, enjoy my final round."

Who knows how much he'll enjoy playing from the back of the pack at an Open in which he had prepared so assiduously and with such enthusiasm given that he had grown up playing the municipal layout.

In an attempt to make up ground, Mickelson decided to put driver in his bag for the first time this week, and he used it on seven holes on Saturday.

"I needed to try to make some birdies and get a few shorter irons in, being that I was 4 over," he explained. "And started out hitting some decent drives, but the back nine I missed some fairways and that was costly."

None was more costly than at the 13th, where he was forced to layup after missing the fairway even though the hole played just 539 yards, the shortest it had played thus far.

A celebrated wedge player, Mickelson got too cute with his third shot with an L-wedge to the front hole location just five paces from the edge, and he spun it off the green. He switched to his 64-degree wedge, but he needed three more tries before getting the ball to stay on the green. He then three-putted.

"It was really one hole that hurt the round. Otherwise I was, what, 1 over for the day and just played OK," he said. "So it wasn't bad. If I make birdie there, I shoot even par for the day and I would be within striking distance for tomorrow.

"Unfortunately, it happens. It sucks, but it happens."