The first shots of the 2007 U.S. Open are scheduled to be struck four weeks from today, which seems about 28 days too long for those eagerly awaiting a tournament that might actually top last year’s national championship for high drama.
Entering last year’s Open, the discussion was whether Phil Mickelson was ready to overtake Tiger Woods as the game’s best player. There was merit to the question; the left-hander had won the past two major championships, the 2005 PGA and 2006 Masters, while Woods, in mourning after the death of his father, hadn’t played in nearly two months.
When the world’s No. 1 player missed the cut at Winged Foot while Mickelson carried a one-shot lead to the tee on the tournament’s 72nd hole, it seemed a serious cut, if not a major reshuffling of the deck, was in order.
However, we know how the rest turned out – Mickelson suffering an inexcusable double bogey and losing the championship to Geoff Ogilvy, a loss that has seemingly haunted Mickelson, well, until right about now.
Now, of course, is the aftermath of The Players, the PGA Tour’s self-proclaimed “fifth major.” In a commanding performance on a demanding, renovated TPC Sawgrass, Mickelson, working under the auspices of Butch Harmon, Woods’ former coach, won his 31st career title.
“You’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg; he’s going to get a lot better,” Harmon told reporters after the tournament.
So let’s review: Mickelson, backed by Harmon, will travel to Oakmont for the Open, where he’ll be facing enough mental ghosts and demons to keep every sports psychologist busy until the next millennium, to try to win a major championship.
And he’ll do so against Woods – who, since last year’s Open, by the way, has only finished first, first and tied for second in the past three majors that have been played.
Woods was never really a factor at The Players; it took a final-round 67 to lift him into a tie for 37th. However that finish, combined with his victory the week before at the Wachovia Championship, told him that there were no major overhauls necessary before the Open.
“I think I just need to keep fine-tuning it,” Woods said. “I’ve overall probably hit the ball better this week than I did last week, but I didn’t putt anywhere near as good.”
As for his part, after the tournament, Mickelson was hard- pressed to stifle thoughts of what was to come.
“What’s most exciting is I feel like we’re just getting started,” he said. “This is only week No. 3 (working with Harmon). I feel like in three months, how much am I going to progress? In three years, where am I going to be?
“I’ve seen an immediate difference in three weeks, and I can’t wait for another three weeks to go by and start getting ready for the U.S. Open. And another three or four weeks to go by and get ready for the British. I’m really excited about the direction I’m headed.”
Of course, in all the buildup for an anticipated Woods-Mickelson showdown, the player most likely to be overlooked is Ogilvy, the Open’s defending champion. In a news conference this week, the Australian said he didn’t mind the fact that a lot of the focus next month would be on what Mickelson didn’t do rather than his own accomplishment.
“The trophy is sitting on my mantelpiece, so I’m quite happy where it’s sitting at the moment,” Ogilvy said. “I guess in an ideal world, you’d like to be walking up the last hole four shots in front and have everyone talking about how you blew the field away and stuff, but that’s not how it worked out.
“And then to be completely honest, I was pretty fortunate last year that it turned out my way the way it did. So I was obviously in the right place at the right time and played the right four rounds at the right time and came away with it.”
Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
