In the end, Sunday's stellar round too late for Lefty at U.S. Open
Too little, too late. Nice way to end an extremely disappointing week. Great job by the USGA and Torrey Pines.
And, yes, he planned to watch the rest of the final round of the 108th U.S. Open.
"I'll probably watch some of it, yes,'' Mickelson said. "It's kind of my punishment.''
What started as a week filled with promise -- with a chance to erase all those U.S. Opens he slammed shut on himself -- ended with a closing 68 and a total of 6-over 290. It was back. Way back. As in there were still three groups left to tee off when he finished.
"It didn't feel far off,'' Mickelson said. "It really didn't. I didn't feel like it was off, I felt like I was close the whole week and just a fraction where balls were kicking in the bunkers or just going in the rough where I had a tough play.
"But it wasn't as far off as the stats will show. [I] just didn't quite get enough in the fairway though.''
Driver, no driver. An extra wedge. He tinkered with his club lineup and the pressure for the hometown boy -- the one who grew up 15 minutes away -- was just too much.
He followed a 71 with a 75 and a 76. Not the scores you'd expect from a three-time Buick Invitational champ and a guy who plays here once a week when he's home. What was equally disappointing was that Torrey Pines was set up for scoring Sunday afternoon.
"The course is set up for some fireworks today,'' Mickelson said. "I thought that there were pin placements on just about every hole you could get to. The par 5s were reachable. Even with the back tee on 16, it being downwind, I think the longest guys will be able to get there.
"But having that up tee on 14, there's some birdie holes out there if you play well. And I think that there's a chance a guy at 3, 2 , 1 over par can shoot 5 or 6 under and get right in this tournament and win it.''
He desperately wanted to be one of those guys. But Saturday's quadruple bogey 9 on the 13the hole Saturday left him holding an okay finish.
"I felt great when the tournament started,'' said Mickelson. "[On] Tuesday, on my energy level was up, I felt like my game was there, I was able to practice and work on it. And I felt like I was ready. I just didn't score, I just didn't perform."
Torrey Pines did. And Mickelson thinks it's only a matter of time until the U.S. Open is back.
"I got to think that the USGA loves the way this tournament has played out, and I think that Torrey Pines, in my opinion, has played the best that any Open setup has played,'' Mickleson said.
"A lot of it has to do with the way it was set up, but it's such a hard golf course to begin with, you didn't have to it up, it was just a straightforward, hard test of golf and I think that there's a good chance it will come back. ''
As for Mickelson? He plans to take tomorrow off -- it's his 38th birthday -- and spent it with his family. After that, he's off for a couple of weeks -- but make no mistakes, he'll be working with swingman Butch Harmon and short-game guru Dave Pelz -- then he'll play the Scottish Open to get prepared for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
"What I take away is I have three weeks off,'' Mickelson said. "I'm going to take three weeks off and get ready for a stretch of the run through the rest of the year. I'll leave for the Scottish Open in preparation for the British Open. I'll have some work with Pelz and some work with Butch to get as sharp as I can in this, in these next couple of weeks. So when I do come back and play nine out of 12 weeks, I'm playing as well as I possibly can.
"Because we saw two majors left, we have the FedExCup, we have the Ryder Cup, we have a lot of big events and I want to get my game sharp for that. It didn't feel far off, I think today's score was evident it's not that far off. But I just got to put it all together.''
And --for the time being -- let Torrey Pines go.
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