LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England —The smile was miles away, replaced by an unfamiliar faraway look of disillusionment.
Phil Mickelson did not look — or sound — like himself following his British Open second round yesterday.
That’s mainly because it was his final round of the week, thanks to missing the cut by an astonishing nine shots, finishing 11-over.
When it was over — after the unsightly 78 he shot yesterday that included three double bogeys, after he dispatched his wife Amy to call the pilots of the private jet to fire up the engines for the long flight home and after he dutifully signed autographs — Mickelson was alone inside the Royal Lytham locker room.
As he quietly cleaned out his locker, Mickelson, usually upbeat and with an answer for everything, was dejected and confused and spoke in low tones. Usually a confident man, he sounded uncharacteristically lost.
“I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what’s going on,’’ he said. “I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ve got to work on some things. I was just off. And on this course you cannot be off or you’ll pay for it.’’
Mickelson paid with an early exit — the fourth time in his 19 British Opens he has missed the cut.
What might have hurt Mickelson more than his scores was the fact he felt teased by what he believed was a resuscitation of his game, which has been dormant way too long this year.
He shot 64 and 65 in the middle two rounds of the Scottish Open last week. That represented a beacon of hope for Mickelson this week. He had finished second at last year’s Open, further buoying his hope he might yet win a Claret Jug.
Those turned out to be cruel teases.
As least a half-dozen times, Mickelson uttered the words, “I don’t know what to say.’’
“The scores are just so far off and yet … I don’t know what to say,’’ Mickelson said.
After shooting 73 in Thursday’s first round, Mickelson said he hadn’t been playing well “for a while now.’’ He said his coach, Butch Harmon, “saw something’’ in his swing that needed correcting and they went straight to the range to work on it.
“I thought that I was going to have a little better round than I did,’’ Mickelson said. “It certainly got away from me those last five holes.’’
Mickelson, who needed a flurry of birdies yesterday to have a chance at making the cut at 2-over, went 6-over on his final six holes after a birdie on No. 12.
“The last two months have been pretty poor play and I’m a little frustrated,’’ Mickelson said. “I’ll have a week to try to get sharp for the PGA [Championship]. I’ll work with Butch this week and see if I can get some direction in my play and see if I can get myself into a better frame of mind heading into these next two months, because we’ve got some big tournaments coming up. I’ve got a lot work to do. This is a little frustrating to me.’’
With that, Mickelson collected his belongings, quietly walked out of the locker room, out of Lytham and into a rare unknown period of his career.