2019 TIME RUNS OUT FOR MICKELSON
No birthday miracle for Lefty as bid to land elusive US Open falls short yet again
There could have been no more appropriate place for Phil Mickelson to celebrate his birthday and enter his 50th year yesterday than by playing the final round of the US Open at Pebble Beach.
This is where his grandfather Al Santos was a boy caddie when the course opened in 1919, with cardboard insoles in his shoes and the hope of earning a silver dollar.
The event Mickelson has strived to win his whole career, where he’s been runner- up six times an disgraced himself on occasion but been inspirational at so many more. Where the greatest short game of all time has rescued so many stray blows.
The event where the crowds from New York in the east to his home state here in the West have never stinted in hoping he’d make it over the line someday. The sights we have seen and the yearning in so many voices.
But it won’t happen now. On Saturday, and the day before he turned 49, the dream of completing the career Grand Slam finally died and the candle went out.
From Mickelson there was no raging against any perceived injustice but an acceptance of his fate and gracious recognition it’s hardly a bad life when every other conceivable dream has come true. ‘I think it’s only right I look back on my career and on my life with a lot of gratitude that I get to do this for a living,’ he said.
‘And when I’m here at Pebble Beach, there’s no place that I am more grateful for the life that I’ve been able to lead and my career and family and so forth. Going back to my grandfather, what this place has meant to me over the years, and having so many great moments here, I can’t help but walk this course and feel grateful. This is a very spiritual place for me.’
Graeme McDowell played with Mickelson (right) for the first two rounds and couldn’t help but marvel at the fact the competitive fire still burns so brightly in the left-hander. It’s the reason why, earlier this year he was able to complete an incredible 25 years in the world’s top 50 and why he won the Pebble Beach pro-am for the fifth time here in February.
The ultimate scenario, of course, was for him to finally win America’s national championship on his favourite course on his birthday but — as ever during Mickelson’s career — Tiger Woods beat him to the golfing miracle when he won the Masters in April.
Mickelson knew the game was up on Saturday. Needing a great round to stand any chance, the five-time major champion signed only for a 75 that meant a final round acknowledging the many chants of ‘happy birthday’ with his trademark thumbs-up.
Naturally, it wasn’t boring. Mickelson might never have played a round in his entire life that deserved such a description. There were birdies, a double bogey, there was a near holed wedge shot from 100 yards. ‘What will Phil do next?’ ran the advert for several years, in tribute to the fact that life with Phil the Thrill was never dull.
What he won’t be doing, however, is winning the US Open. Golfers in their 50th year don’t win the US Open. he might not even be in the field next year, if he suffers a lapse in form — but it will be a poignant occasion if he does make it.
The venue is Winged Foot in upstate New York, where he suffered his biggest heartbreak of all. Needing just a par at the 18th hole to win in 2006 or a bogey for a playoff, he blasted his drive into the trees and came up with a double. ‘What an idiot,’ he said at the time. ‘I can’t believe I just did that.’
There again, where is the venue where Mickelson hasn’t got a hard-luck story? Perhaps only here at Pebble Beach, where he finished with a 72 yesterday, and the birthday celebrations began before the leaders had reached the first tee. Fellow Californian legend Woods also had a tee-time far earlier than he would have liked. Just as he did on Saturday, Woods got off to another slow start, and was four over par after six, and playing purely for pride. Naturally, he showed plenty of that, to rally and be one over after 13. As for the leaders, there was a dramatic move from rory McIlroy early on but in the wrong direction, as he double bogeyed the second, owing to an atrocious piece of course management, as he took on an impossible shot from the thick rough — and lost. Five shots behind the leader Gary Woodland before the start, his chances had gone from doable to virtually zero.
Woodland began with a safe par but lost his one-shot lead owing to a fine birdie from his nearest challenger, Justin rose. A birdie at the second to rose’s bogey, however, gave him a two-shot lead.
Defending champion Brooks Koepka moved within three with birdies at the first and third. Former Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen also had two early birdies to keep pace with Koepka.
Tommy Fleetwood’s US Open adventure fell a long way short of the last two editions, when he finished fourth and runner-up. A holed putt from 20ft at the 18th to make the cut was as exciting as it got, as he followed up one 73 on Saturday with another. ‘I’ve just not been good enough in the majors this year,’ was his candid assessment. ‘I wasn’t close at all here. Today was the best I’ve played but overall I’ve been poor. Scoring-wise, anything I could give away, I did.’