As he approaches 40, Mickelson has shot at best season yet

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Phil Mickelson won four times on the PGA TOUR in 2009 despite missing three months of action.

Tag, Phil's it.

You know it. He knows it. Heck, the whole locker room at Torrey Pines will be thinking it -- just not saying it. At least not too loudly, anyway.

Phil Mickelson is the man to beat in 2010. He probably would have been even if Tiger Woods wasn't tucked away somewhere dealing with things a whole lot bigger than his yardage to the 18th pin. After all, Phil did a 180 last fall on the greens, turning a whole lot of missed putts into two weeks of pure drops and two big wins. As in the TOUR Championship and the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions, his second World Golf Championship of the year.

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That gave him his second four-win season -- 2005 with that PGA Championship was his first -- even further solidified his spot as world No. 2. With a bullet. Yes, when you pull out that complicated equation of factors that include field strength, wins, and Tiger's absence, that top spot could indeed be within Phil's reach.

We don't need to remind him. He so knows it. Which is, in part, why he's sprinting onto the stage in his hometown at the Farmers Insurance Open. The other part? The guy just wants to win.

He's done his homework. He's went into overdrive on his game after the debacle at Winged Foot in 2006. Every breakdown has been addressed; every strength kicked up a notch or two.

He's run down a last-minute checklist that included serious time with Butch Harmon, a couple more hard-work days with Dave Stockton and two more in Austin with Dave Pelz. And then there was a little trip over to the Callaway compound to hammer away at a few of his old Ping Eye 2 wedges. Took them from 60 degrees to 64 just in case he wants to use them. Has a few new chip shots in his arsenal too, which should make more courses shudder.

Phil's always owned the crowds. The grin. The aw-shucks feel along the autograph line. The everyman walk down the fairways. The incredible ride he can take you on -- think Colonial's 18th hole two years ago or Winged Foot, to name two -- in a matter of minutes.

He's always getting himself into trouble and creating chills-and-spills ways to get himself out of it. Blink and you're sure to miss something. Count him out and, well, let's just say that's not the smart play.

Who else could own The Big Apple and the best wedges in the game and have us discuss which is more impressive? That's our California kid who has Wall Street and Broadway eating out of his hand every time he drops by. And Metro Rail trains filled with fans when he plays anywhere within reach of the turnstiles at Penn Station or Grand Central.

Few could dig as deep as he did in 2009 when a fast start hit a wall in May when wife Amy and his mother Mary were diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery within a week of each other. He stepped away for nearly three months and took care of them, struggled when he came back, then did something about it. Dropped by and chatted with Stockton and . . . well, that brings us to 2010. And Torrey Pines.

Phil's teeing it up this week at what's best described as a home course. He knows it better than anyone -- even Tiger. And as he opens his 19th season on TOUR -- can it really be almost two decades? -- he's careening head-long into his 40s, which is prime time for so many careers, last time we looked. Add that to his 37 PGA TOUR wins and ... this could just be getting good.

Harmon has him hitting it longer and a bit straighter and thinking better. Stockton took his putting up a few more notches. And, well, we're always talking about how well this year's major venues suit Tiger, but they're not bad for Phil either.

He's got a pair of Green Jackets and came up just short of a third last year. He'll turn 40 the Wednesday of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach -- the course where he made his professional debut in 1992 and he's won three AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Ams. He finished tied for sixth the last time the PGA Championship was at Whistling Straits and, he has a tie for 13th at St. Andrews, his weakest major link.

Team Mickelson has never seen their man more ready for a season. Nor have they seen him, as Harmon said, "more juiced." They worry maybe a bit too juiced; too anxious.

Yet that's Phil. He'll amble onto the first tee Thursday and let it rip. He won't worry about who's not there, although you know he hopes Tiger will be back sooner rather than later. He wants to beat the best, which he did head-to-head at the end of last year.

This week, he'll play a little like the kid that kicked around at Torrey back in the day and a lot like the guy who enters the season as the best player playing the game today.

The guy who plans to start the season the way he ended it. The guy in everyone's sights. The guy everyone wants to beat.

Just don't forget, he's also the guy who's it; the guy who has nothing -- yet everything -- to prove.

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.