PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Phil Mickelson’s lost year since winning last year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has taken a toll on his world ranking. So much so that it might cost him a spot in this year’s U.S. Open, the only major he needs to complete the career grand slam.
That didn’t seem conceivable when he left Pebble Beach Golf Links last year after defeating Paul Casey by three shots for his record-tying fifth title here. It was his 44th Tour title and left him ranked No. 17 in the world.
As he said, he was ready to crush the rest of the year. Instead, the rest of the year crushed him. He missed eight cuts, his best finish was a tie for 18th in the Masters and he fell to out of the top 50 in the world for the first time since 1993.
He fell to 86th after missing the first two cuts of 2020 but rebounded to 72nd with a tie for third in last week’s Saudi International. But he has to crack the top 60 in the world rankings by the end of the PGA Championship in May or by the Monday of the U.S. Open to get into the national championship. He’d also earn a spot if he were to win the Masters, the Players or the PGA Championship. And the U.S. Golf Association could extend a special exemption to Mickelson, a man worthy of such a gesture for the career he’s amassed that includes a record six runner-up finishes.
But there’s a rub.
“I won’t accept it,” Mickelson said Wednesday at Pebble Beach. “So I am either going to get in the field on my own or I’ll have to try to qualify. I’m not going to take a special exemption. I just won’t.”
Mickelson has missed just one U.S. Open since 1993 – that coming in 2017 when he attended his daughter’s graduation instead of playing at Erin Hills.
He turns 50 two days before the start of this year’s U.S. Open at Winged Foot in New York.
“If I get in, I deserve to be there,” said Mickelson, who might even play in a sectional qualifier if need be. “If I don’t, I don’t. I don’t want a sympathy spot. If I am good enough to make it and qualify, then I need to earn my spot there.”
He’s confident he will. Last week’s tie for third was his first top 10 in a year and boosted his confidence. His body is trimmed and tight, his game is rounding into shape and his mental game is sharpening.
“I have felt coming into this year that a lot of the physical areas of my game have been addressed. I was really excited about how I was playing. And then I get on the golf course and I start not seeing what I want to have happen but more what I don’t want to have happen,” Mickelson said. “My inability to kind of control my thoughts was getting the best of me the first few weeks. And I was able to identify the problem and then fix it and start to control my thoughts a little bit better, control my visualization, and I hit a lot of good shots thereafter (in Saudi Arabia).”
Returning to 17-Mile Drive won’t cloud his vision. He’ll make his 24th start this week on the Monterey Peninsula he loves dearly. His grandfather, Al Santos, was one of the original caddies at Pebble Beach. He loves the format, mingling with entertainment and sports stars as well as captains of industry.
And memories of his wins in 1998, 2005, 2007, 2012 and last year provide positives to call upon. Basically, it’s the perfect storm for Mickelson.
“As I got older I realized what an important event this is in developing kind of a relationship with a lot of the decision makers and key players in the game of golf and developing these kind of emotional connections that lead to better decisions as far as supporting the game,” Mickelson said.
As for his game, he remains as confident as ever.
“I believe I can play at an extremely high level. I just need to show it,” he said. “Physically, I’m swinging the club better, more on plane, striking it more solid, hitting the ball longer, swinging the club faster than I have in many, many years.
“But there’s a lot more to winning than just hitting bombs, and I’m trying to put all those pieces together and I’m enjoying the challenge. I’ve had a great off season and a lot of good things have happened in the last three, four months and I’m very excited for the year. I know the first two weeks didn’t go as planned, but the rest of the year is going to be very good.”