Castle Rock – There wasn’t much doubt about whether Phil Mickelson would return to The International after a year’s absence. The popular lefty made that decision early, perhaps as soon as he tapped in his final putt at the 2004 PGA Championship.
“I’ve only missed it once; I missed last year and I looked back and wished I had come,” Mickelson said Wednesday after playing in The International’s pro-am, a final tuneup for today’s first round.
A two-time winner at Castle Pines, Mickelson skipped the 2004 International because he wanted to play extra practice rounds at Whistling Straits, a links-style layout along the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan that was hosting a major championship for the first time.
Mickelson played well there, tying for sixth, but finished with a thud, a 2-over-par 74.
Whether Mickelson might have cruised to victory after a stop at Castle Pines is something he will never know. But he is well aware he prepared for the 2001 PGA Championship, where he finished second, when he played at The International and the Buick Open in the two weeks leading up to that major.
And a visit to Colorado certainly didn’t penalize other top players last year. Of the top-five finishers at Whistling Straits, four – Chris DiMarco, Justin Leonard, Ernie Els and Chris Riley – walked the hills of Castle Pines a week earlier. The exception was Vijay Singh, who won a three-hole playoff over DiMarco and Leonard to claim the trophy.
“I thought (last year) I might have a difficult time adjusting from the altitude here,” Mickelson said. “But the way it turned out, I don’t think that will be a problem. In fact, I think it’s a great place to prepare and get my game sharp.”
Nobody would have been surprised if Mickelson had skipped this year’s International for an extra week of practice for next week’s PGA. Although he has three victories and ranks third on the PGA Tour money list with $4,274,331, he remains winless since early April and has struggled in majors.
A 10th-place finish in the Masters was followed by a tie for 33rd in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst and a tie for 60th in the British Open at St. Andrews – two venues that should have favored his length off the tee and creativity around the greens.
And Mickelson never has played a competitive round at Baltusrol Golf Club, a historic course in New Jersey that will host the 2005 PGA Championship.
The difference this year, Mickelson said, is he already has played practice rounds at Baltusrol.
Besides, he said he learned early in his career that he plays better in majors after playing the week before.
Tiger Woods prefers a different strategy.
Woods hasn’t played in The International since 1999, the most recent time the tournament was played the week after the PGA. Woods does not play competitively the week before a major.
Mickelson won the 2005 BellSouth Classic a week before the Masters.
“I had talked to a number of great players who liked to take a week off before a major, and I certainly tried that at the beginning of my career,” Mickelson said. “I didn’t ever have any great performances doing that. I felt on Thursday that I was not ready to hit into tight fairways (at a major). I would get off to a poor start and then play catch-up.”
DiMarco discovered the same thing, one reason he’s back at The International.
“Playing before majors, at least I’m sharp,” DiMarco said. “If I was home, I wouldn’t be working as hard as I do when I’m here. Obviously, I gear up for majors. But you know what? I’d like to win here, too.”
Charles Howell III, who hasn’t missed The International since he turned pro in 2000, said playing the week before a major gets him into a “competitive mode” he believes carries over.
“In the years I took the week off before the Masters, I’ve almost thought about it too much,” said Howell, an Augusta native. “I’ve almost blown it out of proportion. I dwelled on it too much.
“The more you can think of majors as being just another tournament, the better off you’ll be. I think you do that by playing the week before.”
Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, one of the favorites here, has the same theory. He said playing the week before a major championship allows him an opportunity to make adjustments.
“There might be some other equipment you want to try, and you get all that done the week before,” Goosen said. “Sometimes at majors everybody is trying to put everything in your bag all of a sudden.”
As for the difficulty adjusting from playing at altitude, Howell said that’s overrated.
“Here, you just add 10 percent,” Howell said. “It’s pretty simple math.”
Staff writer Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-820-5456 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
