SAN DIEGO — Phil Mickelson called this U.S. Open a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
He developed a strategy to match the occasion.
No one can recall anyone showing up at a U.S. Open without a driver in the bag, especially on a 7,643-yard course that is the longest in major championship history. Mickelson referred to Torrey Pines as the hardest course in America, primarily because it was played at sea level with nowhere to hide.
“There aren’t any fun holes there,” he said coming into this U.S. Open. “They’re all just long beasts.”
It has not been much fun for Mickelson, where a late run of bogeys in the second round sent him spiraling out of contention to a 4-over-par 75, only to be topped by a 76 on Saturday that included a quadruple-bogey 9 on No. 13.
In what might be a rare admission of a mistake, Mickelson had his driver on the practice range Saturday before the third round. But the criticism will linger why Lefty kept it out of his bag during the first two rounds, which is all about getting into position.
“If you play well, you can shoot a number. And I didn’t hit enough fairways today,” Mickelson said Friday. “I’ve got to hit the balls in the fairway. When I do, I’m able to play the course effectively. I’m able to make some birdies, make some easy pars. When I don’t, it’s been very tough.”
He hasn’t hit many fairways, and it’s been very tough. Even without a driver, Mickelson has hit only 43 percent of the fairways, tied for 135th out of 156 players. Typically one of the longest hitters in golf, he is averaging 283 yards off the tee and ranks 108th in driving distance.
Crooked and short is the worst combination in golf.
“You noticed that I didn’t have a driver today, huh?” Mickelson said Thursday, sounding proud of the way he thought this through. “My game plan was that I only want to hit it a certain distance. I don’t really want to hit it past 300 yards on most of the par 4s because it starts running into the rough. And I felt like with the fairways being firm like they were today all I needed was 3-wood on the holes.”
Mickelson’s colleagues playfully refer to him as “The Genius” because he seems to have an answer for everything, whether the discussion is quantum physics, solving the fuel crisis or how to attack a golf course.
Remember, this is the guy who broke the mold by bringing two drivers to the 2006 Masters, which turned out to be the easiest of his three major victories. One driver was an inch longer and allowed him to hit a power draw, the other driver was for a controlled fade.
Two drivers worked well at Augusta National.
No driver at Torrey Pines didn’t go so well.
“There’s enough room out there,” said Ernie Els, who is pulling his driver frequently and was even par going into the weekend.
Mickelson got away with it Thursday, when he was able to reach both par 5s in two on the back nine. But it appeared to backfire on a couple of holes Friday as he began his slide down the leaderboard.
One of those was at the par-5 13th, where the back tee box was used, making it roughly a 600-yard hole. Tiger Woods, who had bogeyed two of his first three holes, hit driver and 5-wood to 10 feet behind the hole for eagle. Adam Scott hit an iron for his second shot, which came up just short.
Mickelson had to lay up, hit wedge to 8 feet and missed the putt.
The other hole was the par-5 ninth, which measures 612 yards.
Mickelson could not have reached the green in two even if he had found the fairway; Woods went just over the back, and Scott missed the green to the right. From the left rough, Mickelson barely got it back to the fairway, dumped his third shot in the bunker and took bogey.
A few other examples: Mickelson was some 30 yards behind Woods on the 505-yard sixth hole, leaving him a longer iron — a 5-iron, in this case — to the green, and he pushed that into a sliver of rough, making bogey; Mickelson and Woods each drove into the right rough on the 15th hole Friday, but while Woods was able to hack it out and onto the green to make par, Mickelson had to punch out and made bogey.
And those mistakes were before Saturday’s meltdown.
Woods won the British Open at Royal Liverpool in 2006 by only hitting one driver over four days, not once over the final 55 holes. It was lauded as smart play, but the difference between then and now is that Woods at least kept the driver in his bag if he needed it.
