Mickelson Follows His Hero and Nearly Catches Him

Phil Mickelson, looking as bright-eyed as a youngster on Christmas morning, ran up to the first tee on Torrey Pines’ South Course Thursday morning, poked his way through the crowd, and realized it would still be a few minutes before he made one of the most important debuts of his life.

Ready to hit from the tee, just as Mickelson arrived, was Spain’s Seve Ballesteros, who has teed off in professional golf tournaments plenty of times.

Mickelson, a 17-year-old senior at nearby University of San Diego High School who is one of the best junior golfers in the country, was scheduled to tee off in the next group.

Just a month ago, Mickelson had qualified for the Shearson Lehman Hutton Andy Williams Open as an amateur. He had played in plenty of junior tournaments before, but this was to be his first taste of the pro ranks.

He walked over to his caddy, Tana Figueras, who is also his girlfriend and USDHS teammate, and asked for a couple of balls and a putter. Then he scurried over to the putting green for a couple of last-minute practice putts.

Ballesteros teed off and much of the gallery went down the first fairway with him. On Monday, Mickelson had played a practice round with Ballesteros, one of his boyhood idols.

Now he would be following him.

The other two players in Mickelson’s group, Rick Pearson and Bruce Zabriski, teed off first. Then came a round of applause from family and friends who were there to see Mickelson.

His mother, father, three coaches, older cousins skipping work and younger cousins skipping school were all on hand to see how Mickelson would do his first time out.

As it turned out, his first round was almost up to par. Mickelson finished with a two-over 74 on the more difficult South Course and was subdued afterward only because of a late breakdown that cost him three shots on the final three holes.

“I gave too many shots back,” he said. “It could have been a much better round.”

Mickelson had his moments early, though, and was actually sitting pretty after 10 holes at two under par.

On the first hole, a par 4, his second shot went into a bunker at the left of the green. Mickelson dug his heels in the sand and popped the ball out a couple of feet from the cup. A short par putt and deep breath followed.

On the second hole, he sank a 35-foot putt for birdie.

“After that, the nerves were gone,” Mickelson said.

And, after that, Mickelson was two strokes ahead of Ballesteros, who had bogeyed one of the first two holes.

“I was impressed with him when I played with him,” Ballesteros said. “If somebody hadn’t told me he was 17, I would have thought he was 21 or 22.”

Mickelson bogeyed No. 3 but settled down to record five straight pars.

At the par-5 ninth, Mickelson’s second shot landed in a bunker, 50 yards in front of the green. Again he dug in and escaped, landing his sand shot only a few feet from the flag to set up a birdie.

At No. 10, he rolled in a 10-footer to go two under.

But problems lay ahead.

“So often, a young golfer will do the difficult things good and do the easy things bad,” Ballesteros said.

The two-time Masters and British Open champion hadn’t seen Mickelson’s round, but he described it almost perfectly.

After No. 10, Mickelson’s concentration wandered and some routine shots failed to produce the desired results.

A bogey at the par-3 11th, and another bogey at the par-5 13th, this one coming when his second shot landed in ice plant to the left of the green, brought Mickelson back to par.

He birdied 15, however, only to bogey 16, missing a three-foot putt for par. Then came No. 17, where he missed a 10-footer for par and also a two-foot tap-in for bogey.

“I don’t really know what happened on those short putts,” Mickelson said. “But I do know that I was getting a little tired at the end.”

In the last few days leading up to his first tournament, Mickelson hasn’t been sleeping too well.

“That’s probably because of the tournament,” he conceded. “I didn’t feel nervous, but . . . “

He conceded little else. Instead, he looked ahead to today’s second round and thoughts of possibly making the cut.

“That’s my new goal,” he said. “I had wanted to do better the first round.”

Then he heard Ballesteros’ score and didn’t feel so bad. Mickelson will begin play today just one shot behind Ballesteros, who shot a one-over-par 73.