Hard act to follow
Phil Mickelson is relishing a return to Major action just 10 days after his magnificent showdown at Royal Troon. Nick Rodger reports
YOU can hardly draw breath these days. Henrik Stenson has barely had time to rearrange the odds and ends on his mantelpiece to make way for the Claret Jug and here we go again, battering and clattering away in another Major championship. The plot quickens.
When the US PGA Championship tees-off on Thursday, only 10 days will have passed since the 145th Open Championship drew to a quite jaw-dropping denouement at Royal Troon. The final Major of the season has a got a hell of a show to live up to.
Of course, the reason for the jampacked schedule is that the Olympic golf event needs to be shoehorned into the diary. Back in the day, back-to-back Majors were almost par for the course. Jack Nicklaus won his first US PGA Championship in the sweltering heat of Dallas in 1963, just seven days after he had finished third at The Open in the more modest climes of Lytham.
“I went from a 55-degree temperature to a 110-degree temperature,” Nicklaus recalled. “I remember when I picked up the trophy I had to take a towel. You could’ve cooked your breakfast on the trophy sitting out there it was so hot.”
A decade earlier, the redoubtable Ben Hogan was denied a shot at the Grand Slam on the simple basis that The Open and the US PGA Championship were held at the same time. The celebrated Texan had to settle for winning the triple crown that historic year.
Here in 2016, all roads and private jets lead to Baltusrol in New Jersey. For Phil Mickelson, the man who played his socks off at Troon and still finished three shots behind the majestic Stenson, it’s a chance to dust himself down and get back in the saddle after falling at the final fence in a mesmerising two horse race with the Swede.
It was well documented that Big Phil, at the age of 46, was aiming to become the oldest Open champion since Old Tom Morris in 1867. Funnily enough, Mickelson and Morris were both born on June 16. Golf sometimes doesn’t stick to nice, romantic scripts. The scars of the titanic Troon tussle cut deep. Mickelson played his best stuff but was outgunned in a shootout for the ages. The Californian can’t afford to dwell on the disappointment, though, and the rapid turnaround provides an opportunity to, well, turn it all around.
Baltusrol is a happy hunting ground for him. Having finally made his breakthrough with his maiden Major victory in the 2004 Masters, Mickelson beefed up his resume by winning the US PGA Championship at Baltusrol the following season when he conjured one of his trademarkflop-shots to makeabirdieon the 72nd hole and beat Steven Elkington and Thomas Bjorn by a stroke.
“I’ve got a lot of special memories going back to Baltusrol and because we don’t have a month to wait between Majors, it’s a good thing for me,” Mickelson said. “It doesn’t give me a chance to take time off. It forces me to keep my game sharp.”
How sharp Stenson will be after the emotional and physical rigours of The Open remain to be seen but the 40-year-old will be relishing the prospect of being introduced on the tee as The Open champion with the hoopla of his Troon triumph still the talk of the golfing steamie.
Jason Day, the defending champion and world No 1 who lifted his first Major title in the US PGA Championship with a 20-under tally at Whistling Straits, will be eager to barge his way back into the spotlight having failed to make an impression on the leaderboard at Troon, while Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson will also be wanting be involved in the cutand-thrust again having been left in the shadows by the shimmering spectacle that was the Stenson versus Mickelson showdown.
It’s show time again at Baltusrol.