by Jeff Skinner
Phil Mickelson had a strange week at the 111th U.S. Open at Congressional. Of course he was surrounded by the largest crowds of the week as just about every golf fan wants Phil to break his Open jinx and finally win one. But Phil’s outcome may have been predicted with his first shot of the tournament when he dropped his tee ball on ten into the pond for a double bogey. It didn’t get much better after that and he finished just as he started with another ball in the pond at eighteen on Sunday for another double bogey.
Phil couldn’t get it going at all. For the week he hit only 30 of 56 fairways and 45 of 72 greens. He was spraying the ball all over, his wedge came was off and his putter continued to fail him. With his five second place finishes at the Open he is usually a contender here but this week he looked as lost on the course as Tiger Woods has recently.
When asked what he thought went wrong he admitted he was confused, “I’m not sure yet if I have a great answer for you.” Even an emergency call to coach 
Butch Harmon failed to correct his problems.
Phil, always an optimist, thinks this may help him in the remaining majors. “It just gets me more geared up to look forward to the British,” he said. “We have some big tournaments coming up, so I’ll have two weeks to try to get my game ready and head over to Europe.”
This one has to hurt Phil. With five seconds at his national championship and the window for major wins closing quickly, he doesn’t have many chances left.
Phil usually finishes second at the Open or so far down the leaderboard you can’t find him. Maybe it’s easier to miss by a lot rather than have the heartbreak of another near miss. With this painful performance Phil misses another chance to win the title he covets so much. It can’t be an easy pill to swallow.
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