GOLF: PHILIP REIDhears why the subtleties of links golf have finally and belatedly found a fan in Phil Mickelson
PHIL MICKELSON’S record in the British Open, with perhaps one exception, is nothing to write home about. In 17 appearances, he has just one top-10 finish – a third place at Troon in 2004 – and, otherwise, it has been a sorry story of missed cuts or finishing his final round before the leaders have even got under way in the quest for the Claret Jug.
Perhaps the patience required for links golf has been his downfall. At least in the past?
This year, Mickelson has adopted a new approach. It’s almost as if he has forgotten his past endeavours and started from scratch. Forget his cumulative total of 85-over-par in the 62 rounds he has played, or that he once shot an 85 – yes, 85 – at Royal Birkdale. That was in 1998, an age ago. Before he was a major champion. Before he truly appreciated that links golf could be, as he put it yesterday, “fun”.
Fun? Yesterday, two of Mickelson’s shots in his wind epitomised the difference of seaside golf with the parkland fare that was his lot growing up in California. On the 11th, a par three of 243 yards, Mickelson hit a driver which failed to reach the green. On the 17th, a par four of 426 yards, Mickelson’s downwind drive flew high and long and ran along the humps and hollows to finally settle 380 yards away from him.
The subtleties of links golf have finally and belatedly found a fan in Mickelson. “I think it’s a fun challenge, it’s just interesting, (with) the air so thick and the wind so strong, to have such a varying degree and such an importance of trajectory and flight. I think it’s a fun challenge, whether I play well or not,” he said.
He added: “I’m entering this year kind of like a fresh start, if you will. I’m not going to worry about past performances, and I’m going to try to learn and enjoy the challenge of playing links golf. And I’m having fun doing that.
“I’m trying to pretend like it’s my first time here . . . I don’t want to look back on my past performances that haven’t been what I expect. But I feel excited and kind of reinvigorated to come over here and try to learn this style of golf and play it effectively.”
“I’m not trying to fix any past poor play. I’m trying to come here and play the way links golf should be played, along the ground, as effectively as I can, and really enjoy the challenge that it brings, because again, it’s a different style of play. We can’t play through the air . . . I wouldn’t say there’s an absence of rough, but it’s certainly not the wedge-out thick rough that we had in ’03, and to me the subtleties of this golf course come through now that we’re able to keep playing and not have to wedge back to the fairway.”
Mickelson – whose wife, Amy, yesterday took the couple’s children away to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower and visit the Louvre while he got to grips with the nuances of links golf in the wind – added of his prospects: “I’m trying to pretend I’ve never played here before and I’m just trying to learn it all from the start, from scratch. So I don’t think I can say I’m going in confidently; I’m going in with an open mind on some of the new ideas to play the course and hopefully play it effectively.”
Time will tell, but at least he will have “fun” trying to contend. And, he insisted, there’s no truth in the rumour doing the rounds that marshals had been issued with hard hats to combat his wayward drives. Fun guy, this Phil.
