by Jeff Skinner
There is no joy in Mudville oops, I should say the Sandhills, Mighty Casey has struck out. Our Mighty Casey this week was supposed to be Phil Mickelson. He swung and missed only it wasn’t with a bat it was his putter.
No player came into the U.S. Open with more pressure on him, mostly self-imposed, than Phil Mickelson.
Phil’s six seconds and his trials at the U.S. Open are legendary. But ever since he hugged the Claret Jug at the Open Championship last year his focus has been on this week and winning his most elusive major.
The career grand Slam has been his goal and in the months preceding Pinehurst he was as vocal as any player had ever been about his goal. He wanted it, still does, only this year the dream is dead.
Phil’s problem putting killed any chance he had today.
After a good start with two early birdies he couldn’t buy a putt. He carded five bogeys for a three over 73, needed 34 putts and kissed his grand slam hopes goodbye.
Phil realizes that without his putter there’s no chance at an Open, “I feel like I’m playing well enough to win the U.S. Open, except for putting. And that’s not a — it’s kind of the same story. After I’ve 3-putted three or four times, I kind of lose my focus on the other stuff. It really affects my ability to concentrate and my momentum and energy. It’s a frustrating time, because I feel like the other parts of my game are there. I don’t feel like I had such a great stretch last year putting. I feel like it’s in there. It doesn’t feel like the ball’s coming off bad. I don’t feel like the stroke is bad, but I’m just not dialed in. I’m just not making them.”
He says he has no feel and the claw didn’t help. He switched back today but nothing worked. “It’s a frustrating thing for me. It’s very important part of the game. Last year, when it was on, like the British Open was some of the best putting I’ve had, and whenever you putt well and you make short ones and you make those 5-, 6-footers and you’re running a couple of 20-footers in, the game feels easy. You don’t put pressure on yourself to hit it close. You can hit more of the middle of the greens. Your ball striking then becomes a lot easier. Your targets are a lot bigger. But the hole looks like a thimble to me right now. I’m having a hard time finding it.”
He’s having a hard time and so are his fans. You could hear the moans and groans from his fans as he fell further down the leaderboard.
There is no joy in Mudville. And no grand slam either.
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