Strege

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Phil Mickelson has often seemed out of his element at the British Open

Mickelson has only one career top 10 in the British Open.

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By John Strege

Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images

July 9, 2010

Links golf, we often hear, is best played with low, boring shots, which might be one explanation for Phil Mickelson's pedestrian record in the British Open. Mickelson doesn't hit boring shots, low or otherwise, as we have come to appreciate from this, the greatest show on turf.

How else to account for an Open record that doesn't square with his standing as the second best player of his generation? How can a legendary career that includes 38 victories and four majors (and counting) have been built without a contribution from the game's oldest and, in many precincts, most prestigious tournament?

Mickelson will play in the British Open for the 17th time next week at St. Andrews. Only once has he cracked the top 10, when he finished third at Royal Troon in 2004.

It might suffice simply to dismiss this aberration as an extension of a career that routinely confounds. Why? We ritually ask in the wake of one calamity or another. The answer is often the same: It's a mystery.

Still, we look for answers, as we do again to explain his sustained mediocrity in the British Open. It's often argued that he's a high-ball hitter, for instance, that hang time is a deterrent in a sea breeze that demands the game be played closer to the ground.

Yet John Daly was a high-ball hitter, too, as was Jack Nicklaus (with apologies to Nicklaus for including him and Daly in the same sentence). Both won British Opens.

Maybe he's soft from having learned the game in San Diego, where the weather is perpetually docile. Yet he won his third consecutive NCAA championship by a landslide in fairly nasty weather in Albuquerque in 1992.

It has become a rite of summer, Mickelson being asked to explain his inability to solve the riddle of links golf and to offer a fix for the Open ahead.

In 2004: "The British Open...emphasizes spin control and trajectory," he said. "It's firmer and it takes getting used to here."

In 2006: "It wasn't until 2004 that I really understood the technique of hitting the ball properly into the wind. I was swinging hard, like I normally do, and I wasn't able to get that low, penetrating shot. And now with a couple of technique changes...the ball shoots low and through the wind. I'm able to control it a lot better."

In 2007: "I'm excited about how I've kind of improved. My poor performances now...I ended up having a chance. The biggest thing for me was off the tee. I really struggled in the past off the tee. Now I've been working on these low drivers that have been able to keep it in play and not have the wind or crosswinds blow it way off line. That's going to be a key. If I don't hit the fairway I have to keep it close enough to where it doesn't get in too much trouble."

In 2008: "Oh-four was the first time that I felt comfortable and confident playing golf over here. I had been working with (Dave) Pelz on taking some spin off of my short irons, and it was that process that allowed me to control my trajectory, control my spin rate."

Which brings us to 2010. At the Barclays Scottish Open, the question predictably arose again. "I'm kind of figuring out. That early in my career, I didn't have the best technique for controlling the ball in the wind," he said. "I was coming in too steep, putting too much spin on the ball. Even when I would hit it low, it would have too much spin.

"The thing I've struggled most with over here has actually been the greens. A lot of the fescues on the greens, it's a stronger blade of grass and I haven't adjusted properly...If I can change that, I should be able to contend."

Mickelson also noted that the victories by Daly and Tiger Woods at St. Andrews (the latter winning twice there) indicate the advantage of length. "The further you're able to carry the ball the more bunkers you're able to eliminate. One of the things I've been working on in my preparation is trying to swing the clubhead faster. I will be swinging much harder than I would normally in a number of Open Championships where you're trying to keep the ball in a tighter fairway."

He has covered the gamut, tee to green, which could suggest that a player so inherently skilled might be over-thinking things. This again brings us to Daly, about whom no such claim has ever been made.

Leave the boring shots to others, Phil. Just grip it and rip it.