With Woods gone, Mickelson brings shot in the arm to event
By Art Spander, Special to PGATOUR.COM
SAN DIEGO -- This is his town, San Diego, where the waves sweep in and world seems nothing but blue skies and Mexican food. This is the place Phil Mickelson was always The Man, even when he was a boy.
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And now, with the absence of the other guy, and is there any reason to mention names, there's a new responsibility for Mickelson as he plays for the first time in 2010.
He's been assigned the role of savior for both the PGA TOUR and the newly-sponsored Farmer's Insurance Open.
The PGA TOUR has gone along for three weeks, two of those in Hawaii, the last one in the California desert, and the winners have been more than recognizable, Geoff Ogilvy, Ryan Palmer and then, with his father Jay watching, Bill Haas, champions of two generations.
Yet, this event traditionally has been the coming-out party for Tiger Woods, who is not here, and Mickelson, who definitely is, and ecstatic to be.
Starting in the late fall, after he won THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, then went across the sea to take the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in China, the predictions were this year would be Mickelson's year. And with the start Thursday of the Farmer's Insurance Open, at Torrey Pines up on the bluffs above the Pacific, this year has arrived.
"He's like a kid again,'' fellow pro Hunter Mahan said of Mickelson. "He's excited about everything. And that's cool.''
Excited about his game. Excited about the progress his wife, Amy, and mother, Mary, in their battles against breast cancer. Excited about the fitness program which has him pulling in his belt a notch or two. Excited, as he says, about "taking some weaknesses and turning them into a strength that gives me the confidence or the belief that this could be an exceptional year.''
Mickelson grew up about 10 miles from Torrey, where he's won three times. But not since 2001. Not since the courses, North and South, were redone, changing the greens and Phil's viewpoint.
"They've affected the way I've played here,'' said Mickelson. "I knew the greens inside and out, having grown up here and playing high school golf. But now, having played here the past eight or nine years (since the alterations), I'm starting to understand the course better. I'm starting to see the nuances of the greens.
"I'm expecting to have a good week, because it's a course I love but also because my game is feeling much sharper starting the season than it has been.''
Mickelson always has been outgoing, if not quite Arnold Palmer then at least a variation on a theme thereof, acknowledging the fans with a smile or a wave.
There's no question Tiger Woods took some of the success Phil might have had, even at Torrey, where Woods has seven victories, one of those in that historic 2008 U.S. Open. Still, Phil has prospered, especially in his home state, winning at Pebble Beach in the AT&T, at Riviera in the Northern Trust Open and of course at Torrey, in what is now the Farmers Insurance Open.
Mickelson is a fan. He knows what's happening, in football -- it was agony when his Chargers were upset by the New York Jets a week and a half ago -- in baseball and most of all in golf. When he addressed the media Wednesday for the first time in the year, Phil went immediately for the jugular.
He went immediately to the subject of Tiger Woods.
"That's a common topic,'' agreed Mickelson. "The game of golf needs him to come back. I mean, it's important for him to come back and be part of the sport.
"But right now he's got more important things in his life. Amy and I are good friends with both Tiger and Elin, and we care deeply how this turns out. But I choose not to talk publicly about it anymore, and I appreciate your understanding on that.''
Sure, he discussed the new rule on depth and width of grooves in irons. "The only thing that matters,'' he said of his clubs and those used by others, "is they are approved for play, it's OK under the rules of golf.''
Mickelson's schedule, built around treatments for Amy, does not include the World Golf Championships-Match Play Championship at Tucson. "I had to make a judgment call for my family,'' he explained.
His judgment on the San Diego tournament acquiring Farmers Insurance as sponsor is that it was brilliant move, for both sides.
"I think,'' he said "it's important for us as a tour to prove to the corporations involved in the game that this is the best vehicle for them to spent their marketing dollars. It's up to us to show that in every way, whether it's personal relationships with their clients, whether it's interaction on the golf course, making for a great day.''
When Phil Mickelson is involved, the day invariably is.
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