Eight months later, the dazed, pained look on his face after he leaked away a U.S. Open victory is difficult to forget.
Phil Mickelson stood on the 18th tee at Winged Foot with the 2006 Open in the palms of his hands, but his errant drive left into the trees and then a poor second shot into a tree left Jeff Ogilvy as the accidental champion.
Mickelson was virtually invisible in the next two majors – the British Open and PGA. He, too, was winless in the U.S. side’s embarrassing Ryder Cup loss in September in Ireland.
Those failures left him with a poor taste in his mouth for the 2006 season despite winning multiple times, including his second Masters. He was motivated to reassess his game and it spurred him to improve his driving accuracy and physical stamina.
A slow start in his first three events this winter – T-48 at the Hope, T-51 at the Buick and a missed cut at the FBR Open – had many speculating that Mickelson was still hung over from 2006.
But his resounding five-shot victory at Pebble Beach last week has squashed the ’06 hangover theories. It, too, was proof his offseason changes might indeed breed ’07 success.
Mickelson, who will tee off today in the Nissan Open in Los Angeles, finished tied for fourth in driving accuracy at Pebble with 81.8 percent of fairways hit.
It has left him brimming with confidence after Sunday’s victory and leading into the 2007 season of majors, beginning with the Masters in April.
Mickelson, speaking on a pre-Masters conference call yesterday, said his recovery from the Winged Foot nightmare, after which he called himself “an idiot,” was “absolutely” aided by the fact that he’d already broken through and won three majors.
“It made a big difference because I’d already proven to myself that I can win majors,” he said. “Even though I stumbled, it wasn’t nearly as devastating as it would have been had I never won one.”
Assessing his 2006 season, Mickelson called it “an interesting year, adding, “it started out with such promise, winning the Masters, winning Atlanta by 13 shots, playing some of my best golf ever, with a great opportunity to win the U.S. Open.
“[But] with the falter there, with our performance in the Ryder Cup, not contending in the other majors, it certainly didn’t end the way I wanted it to.
“I don’t feel discouraged about ’06. It was a year that could have been – or almost was, if you will.”
Mickelson said it was in the offseason when he made it his mission to improve his driving and eliminate that leak left that doomed him at Winged Foot.
Mickelson, who finished tied for 160th on the PGA Tour in driving accuracy in 2006 with 58.61 percent of fairways hit, is tied for 48th at 65.7 percent this year.
“If I can get the golf ball in play like I did [at Pebble], I think it’s going to be a very good year,” he said. “I’m really excited about this year. This is really going to be a fun year I feel.”