It would be just like Phil Mickelson to do it this week, wouldn’t it?
It would be vintage Phil to accomplish the Mickelslam, reaching the rarified air by becoming just the sixth player to complete a career Grand Slam with a triumph in the US Open at Pinehurst — despite more distractions swirling around him than the air traffic hovering above LaGuardia Airport.
Why wouldn’t Phil do it?
Because he recently has been the very public subject of an FBI probe into possible insider trading, linked to iconic investor Carl Icahn and noted Vegas uber-gambler Billy Walters?
Because he has finished runner-up in the US Open — his self-described most coveted championship — a record six times in his career, enduring more heartbreak than a scorned bride left at the alter a half-dozen times, certain she never will find “Mr. Right”?
Because he is off to his worst start as a pro, having gone 16 consecutive events without a top-10 finish entering this week’s St. Jude Classic, dating to August?
Because he is outside the top 40 in every major statistical category, most notably strokes gained putting, where he ranks 106th (last year, he was ranked sixth)?
Because he has been so open and honest about how badly he craves a US Open title more than any other and how accomplishing the Slam would put his career into a completely different stratosphere?
Should Mickelson win this US Open, the lead to the story I will write Sunday night already is rattling around in my head: “Of course he did.’’
“Phil is the most resilient player I’ve ever seen,’’ Mickelson’s coach Butch Harmon told The Post last week. “He’s like a cornerback in the NFL. The last play never happened, because they’ve got to have a short memory. That’s how Phil is. I look at this off-course stuff [insider trading probe], which to me is total [garbage]. I know Phil well enough to know he hasn’t done anything wrong. What you see is what you get with Phil. He’s very honest about who he is and how he lives his life.’’
Harmon is convinced no distraction can rattle Mickelson on the golf course.
“Inside the ropes is a sanctuary, and he’ll use that to his advantage, which will get him to focus even more,’’ Harmon said. “He’s been able to put all this stuff behind him. He had to do that with [his wife] Amy and his mom and cancer. He had to do that with his arthritis. He has the ability to prioritize everything extremely well and go on with his life.
“Everything for him is like water off a duck’s back. It doesn’t faze him that he hasn’t had a top-10 [finish] all year. He knows he’s playing pretty good and hasn’t gotten anything out of it. He’s very upbeat, he had a great two-day visit at Pinehurst [last week] and he loved the place. It really fits into the things he likes to do.
“He’s really confident, to be honest with you.’’
Another legitimate question surrounding Mickelson is whether he wants this too badly and if the weight of that desire might derail him.
“He talks about completing the career Grand Slam, so it’s on his mind,’’ Harmon said. “The big thing Bones [Mickelson’s caddie Jim Mackay] and I will look at is we’ve got to keep him geared down till Thursday, because he’s like a freakin’ race hose. He’s ready to go right now.’’
One of Mickelson’s virtues is that he does not run and hide from his desires. This is not “just another tournament” for him, as many other players would drone on in an effort to tamp down the pressure of the enormity of the event.
“When Mickelson had not won a major, I remember him saying, it’s not whether I’ll win a major or not, he said, it’s how many am I going to win? And this was before he won one,’’ ESPN analyst Paul Azinger said. “I think the fact that he’s taking it head on just fits his personality. Embracing it is one of those things that he does.’’
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said, “He’s done everything in the game of golf … and the one thing left for him is to win the US Open. With the distractions coming into this US Open, who knows what’s going to happen, but Phil has been incredibly resilient to distractions throughout his career of every sort. It would not surprise me if Phil showed up and dazzled us for four days.’’
“I think that if I’m able to win the US Open and complete the career Grand Slam, that’s the sign of the complete great player,” Mickelson said. “I’m a leg away, and it’s been a tough leg for me. Those five players are the greats of the game. You look at them in a different light.’’
This US Open is Mickelson’s 87th start at a major championship and his third at Pinehurst — the site of his first runner-up finish in 1999, when, after the late Payne Stewart defeated him, he put his hands on Mickelson’s cheeks and assured him he would win a major championship.
The next day, Mickelson experienced the birth of the first of three children, Amanda. Four months later, Stewart perished in a plane crash.
“It was an emotional experience and emotional week and things, you know, worked out the way they should have,’’ Mickelson said.
Mickelson has gone on to win five majors — three Masters, one PGA Championship and the British Open he won last July at Muirfield, which came five weeks after his latest U.S. Open runner-up — the crushing loss at Merion, where he took a one-shot lead into the final round on his 43rd birthday and shot 74 and finish two shots behind Justin Rose.
Mickelson has been candid about the “heartbreak’’ of Merion, calling it one of the most crushing disappointments of his career.
“He was so down after that that he went into hiding for five or six days,’’ Harmon recalled.
“You have to be resilient in this game. … You have to deal with so much failure. It’s just part of it,’’ Mickelson said. “It’s something I’ve become accustomed to now for decades and you move on. Last year one of the lowest points of my career was at the U.S. Open, and I was able to turn it around and have one of the highest points [at the British Open], so you just don’t want to look back. You want to look forward and see what you can accomplish in the future.
“It would mean a lot to win the national championship, complete the career Grand Slam, and I’ve said that for a while, so I’m not going to deny it, and I do believe it will happen. I’ve played well in that tournament … and I think I will continue to play well in that tournament, whether it’s at Pinehurst or whether it’s next year at Chambers Bay or Oakmont the following year.
“I’m not sure where it will happen, but I am confident it will.’’
And if (when?) he does?
“It would be one of the great wins of all time,” NBC lead analyst and 1973 U.S. Open winner Johnny Miller said.
“If there’s some kind of justice in the world, he’s supposed to win this year,” fellow NBC analyst Roger Maltbie said.
“I’ll be a wreck,’’ said Harmon, who was uncharacteristically emotional after Mickelson’s win at the British. “If he pulls this one off … I may cry for a week.’’