Phil Mickelson reacted to the question with a smile and a candid answer, two attributes that have allowed him to become the superstar he is when visiting the New York area.
By his own admission, the five-time major champion has had a poor year, coming into The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., looking at a winless season for just the third time in his career. And at this point, with all four majors behind him, when asked if one win could rectify the disappointing year, Mickelson only could be honest.
“I don’t even know if that would do it,” Mickelson said, “because it hasn’t been a great year. And I’m OK with that.”
There were glimmers of hope in Mickelson’s game throughout the year, no more so than two weeks ago at the PGA Championship, when he fell one shot short of winner Rory McIlroy, who took home his second consecutive major. Mickelson’s final-round 66 kept fans on the edge of their seats, and yet it still has him scratching his head, knowing the entire tenor of the season would be different if just a couple shots were played better.
“It was a disappointing finish for me in the sense that had I played two shots better in that final round, it would have made the year totally different,” Mickelson said. “But now, I’ve got to play well this week and [in] the FedEx Cup to make the year salvageable.”
Mickelson starts the tournament on Thursday with a 7:53 a.m. tee time, playing alongside Justin Hicks and Will MacKenzie. They are the two nameless players who sandwich him in the FedEx Cup standings, where Mickelson sits 45th out of the 125 who made it into this tournament.
But it’s a bigger picture than that for the 44-year-old Mickelson. Of course he wants to make it to the second leg of the playoffs, up at TPC Boston over Labor Day weekend. And of course he has his sights set on moving on from there to the third leg, out in Colorado, and then to the Tour Championship in Atlanta with the $10 million prize that awaits the eventual champion.
Yet retrospection now leaves Mickelson with a bit of a hollow feeling, and all he can do is look ahead and hope to take some positives from what was a lost season.
“The PGA was a big week for me because it was the first time this year my game was back,” Mickelson said. “It gave me an excitement and energy heading into the FedEx Cup and Barclays here, that my game is back and I’m ready to compete and get back into contention.
“It was so fun being up there again and the nerves and the excitement of it all, it got me excited.”
He is also excited to be part of his record 10th consecutive U.S. Ryder Cup team, traveling to Scotland to take on the European squad next month. And Mickelson is looking even further than that, thinking about the 2016 Olympics in Brazil and how, he said, “to be a 46-year-old Olympian, that’s pretty cool.”
So maybe 2014 was a bust for Mickelson, but it would be tough to tell. He spent a long time on Tuesday shaking hands with military personnel adjacent to the 18th fairway, then signing autographs for hordes of gathered fans.
New York always has been a special place for this California kid, who began ingratiating himself to the boisterous crowds with his run at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage. He even made mention of the 2024 Ryder Cup to be played out at Bethpage, and how exciting it’s going to be.
“The fans here in the metropolitan area were the biggest reason why the Ryder Cup is coming here,” said Mickelson, who very well may be the captain of that team.
And that certainly would be a highlight of his career, one that may have had a bad season here and there, but one that is still rife with accomplishment.