GULLANE, Scotland — Phil Mickelson has always been a relationship person.
Relationships define and drive his life.
His tight relationship with his family is well-documented. His relationship with the fans is rivaled by no one else in the game. Even his relationship with the media has always been stronger than most star players.
There might, in fact, be only one area in life where Mickelson has had a rough relationship, and curiously that has been with links golf.
Mickelson’s struggles in most of the 19 British Opens he has played in his career has developed into a full-fledged stigma. This week is Mickelson’s 20th British Open and he has only four Top-20 finishes — equaling the amount of times he’s missed the cut.
Mickelson, who missed the cut last year at Lytham, was asked yesterday to describe his “relationship’’ with links golf.
The question was followed by a long pause before Mickelson delivered this succinct answer: “It’s a hate/love. I used to hate it and now I love it.’’
Links is easy to love for Mickelson at the moment considering his break-through victory at last week’s Scottish Open at Castle Stuart, a recently-built links course in the north of Scotland. Mickelson believes he might have finally unlocked the secret to his problematic relationship with links golf with the win _ his first as a pro on the quirky turf.
Mickelson’s struggles in British Opens has made some sense because of the way he hits the ball (high) and struggles on the slower greens that are a characteristic of links golf. Mickelson, too, is a swashbuckler, and chance-takers can sometimes be eaten alive by the penalizing nature of links golf.
But his links struggles are more of an enigma, because there might not be a more creative player in the game than Mickelson, who is motivated by facing tough shots and embraces trying to pull them off.
“The common thread is, I believe, more on the greens than anything,’’ Mickelson said. “I’ve not putted these greens well with these little subtle nuances and rolls, with the crosswinds that come into play, as well as the strong blades of fescue grass.
“But I am really optimistic about this week and going forward because I’m starting to putt as well as I ever have,’’ Mickelson went on. “I putted great last week, and more than that I’ve been putting well now for months, and feel like I’ve really keyed in on something over the last three or four years. Finally, I believe I have kind of found the secret to my own putting.’’
Because he enjoys the flair for the dramatic, Mickelson, of course, preferred not to divulge any specifics about that secret. Along with his flair for the dramatic, Mickelson also loves to tweak, and he could not help himself from a layup jab when he was asked about the challenge of backing up last week’s Scottish Open win with a first career British Open win this week at Muirfield.
“It’s difficult to win the week before a major and then follow it up winning the major,’’ Mickelson said.
Pause for the punch line.
“But then again,’’ he went on, “the last person to do it … you’re looking at him.’’
Indeed, Mickelson, with his runaway win at the 2006 BellSouth Classic and his Masters victory the next week, is the last player to follow up a win the previous week with another at a major.