AT&T NATIONAL
BETHESDA, Md. – Phil Mickelson – whose presence at this week’s Tiger Woods-hosted AT&T National at Congressional was somewhat in question because of his injured left wrist – not only showed up for yesterday’s pro-am, but his game looked Sunday sharp.
Mickelson carved up the back nine of his round, missing only one fairway (No. 12), and that was by a mere couple of feet. In short, he made it look effortless.
After his round, though, Mickelson, perhaps wanting to stay as under the radar as he can, downplayed his prowess, saying his wrist is “OK … not quite 100 [percent], but it will be all right.”
The wrist in question was injured during Memorial Day weekend at Oakmont, where he was practicing for the U.S. Open hitting balls out of the heavy rough.
Mickelson missed the cut by one shot at Oakmont and hasn’t played a competitive round since June 15. He did, however, say yesterday that he’s been playing at home for more than a week, and that he spent a couple of days working with new coach Butch Harmon last weekend.
“We’re trying to get it straightened out so there is not as much curvature [in his shots], and that was more apparent on the back nine [yesterday],” Mickelson said. “This will be a good week to test [his game] because the fairways are tight. If I can drive it well here, hopefully I can have a chance on Sunday.”
Asked what it would mean to him to win Woods’ tournament, Mickelson said, “Well, if he passed out the trophy, it would be pretty cool.”
Woods sounded gratified that Mickelson, who initially didn’t have this tournament on his schedule because it came together late, was coming to play in his event.
“I understand that he wants to get a competitive tournament in before he plays the British Open, and for him to come in and choose this one it makes it special for us, because obviously Phil has got all the talent in the world and is having a great year,” Woods said. “Just unfortunately, he’s got some issues with the wrist.”
Mickelson, who was still wearing a wrap on the wrist yesterday, certainly looked healed with his performance on the back nine. Still, though, he made it clear he’s not completely comfortable with it.
“I’m going to be leery all year,” Mickelson said. “It’s not like I’m going to ever be confident and going aggressively at it, but I think it will be OK.”
Congressional, which Mickelson and many other players say has a U.S. Open-type of set-up, figures to be a good test for his wrist.
“I love coming here and playing a U.S. Open-type venue,” Mickelson said. “And now that the doctor said that I won’t be doing any more damage to the wrist – that I can go ahead and go at it 100 percent – I wanted to get back out and play, and this is a great place to do it.”
Mickelson, who is very involved with charitable activities involving the military, sounded particularly moved by Woods has allotting 30,000 free tickets to the military.
“I love what Tiger has done incorporating the military here,” he said. “This is a natural fit. This is probably the direction that [Woods’ late father] Earl saw from day one. I’m sure that [Tiger] is sad that [Earl] is not able to be here to see it, but I think this is the way his father kind of lives on.”