Phil Mickelson endures topsy turvy year

Where to start with Phil Mickelson?

Since last year’s Masters, the three-time winner at Augusta National has done the following:

• Shot 81 in the third round of the U.S. Open, including a two-shot penalty for hitting a ball while it was still moving

• Beat Tiger Woods in a much-ballyhooed head-to-head match

• Flirted with 59 in the opening round of the Desert Classic, settling for 60

• Backed off his claim that he would win 50 PGA Tour events

• A week later, won at Pebble Beach for his 44th PGA Tour triumph

Mickelson, 48, has always been a streaky player. But even by his standards, the past 12 months have been topsy turvy.

It might have started in Augusta. A month after winning the World Golf Championship event in Mexico, Mickelson had one of his strangest performances in 26 Masters appearances. He opened with 70, then shot 79 and 74 the next two rounds. He closed with 67, his best round there since 2015.

After missing the cut at Bay Hill, Mickelson sounded like he was itching to get back to the Masters.

“When you go to Augusta, I feel like I don’t have to be perfect and so I end up making better swings,” he said. “I hit a lot more good shots and my misses are playable. And then you get out here and the fairways are tight, the rough is thicker, and then I start to steer it and I start to make some horrific swings.”

Mickelson had proclaimed a year earlier that he would reach 50 wins, but he dialed that rhetoric down earlier this year.

“I’m a little more realistic, because I really thought I was going to pick off two or three more at the end of the year and I played terrible,” he said. “But I had a great offseason, I came back, made some adjustments and I think that I’m ready to start playing some of my best golf again.”

Mickelson worked hard in the off-season and said he has increased his swing speed. That has produced some of the best golf he has played in recent years, with a runner-up at the Desert Classic and the victory at Pebble Beach for his 44th on the PGA Tour.

“I always feel like it’s important for me to win early in the year because it takes a lot of pressure off,” he said. “The focus isn’t on the results, the focus is on trying to get your game sharp when you’ve already won and had success.

“When you haven’t won you tend to force things and take on some things you don’t normally do. I feel like it’s allowed me to focus on my game and not worry so much about the results because I’ve already won.”

The low point of Mickelson’s year came at Shinnecock Hills in the U.S. Open. Already 4-over for his third round, Mickelson hit his bogey putt at the 13th a bit too hard. Then he took off running and hit his ball while it was still moving. After much confusion, he was assessed a two-shot penalty and took 10 on the hole.

Mickelson would dearly love to win the U.S. Open, and it will be played this year at Pebble Beach, where he has won five times. After six runner-up finishes in the national championship, a win would give him the career Grand Slam.

But for now, he’s dialed in on the Masters.

“I would love nothing more to add to it five months from now, but that’s so far down the road, like all I’m focused on right now is the Masters,” Mickelson said after Pebble Beach. “That’s all that’s in my mind and what I’m thinking about. So this adds to my opportunity at Augusta and that’s kind of where I’m at right now mentally.”