Mickelson Remains In Spotlight : Golf: Despite lineup of top pros, pre-tournament attention focuses on local amateur.

Craig Stadler’s wardrobe includes a Masters’ green jacket.

Scott Simpson has a U.S. Open triumph on his resume. Tom Watson has reigned supreme in the Masters, the U.S. Open and an additional 30 tournaments.

So much for the background performers in today’s first round of the $1 million Shearson Lehman Brothers Open at ocean-side Torrey Pines.

After a two-week break for homework and classes, the crowd-pleasing Phil Mickelson amateur hour resumes.

Mickelson, a junior at Arizona State, has drawn huge galleries in two previous PGA Tour appearances this year. Now he plays in his hometown, where as a youngster, he won 34 junior tournaments.

“My dream as a kid,” said Mickelson, 20, “was to feel what it would be like to be inside the ropes at the San Diego Open.”

He will need those ropes today to separate him from the admiring spectators and the curious pros.

“I went up to him in Phoenix and introduced myself,” said Mark O’Meara, who lost a sudden-death playoff with Corey Pavin for last week’s Bob Hope Classic. “I’ve watched him swing, and I like it, and they say he’s phenomenal around the greens. I’ve heard stories of shots he’s played in certain situations that would blow your mind.”

He’s already pressed the imagination of golf historians, who have yet to see an amateur win two PGA Tour events. Mickelson became only the fourth amateur to collect a PGA Tour title with a 16-under-par 272 in the Tucson Open last month, and he finished tied for 32nd in the Phoenix Open.

Had his amateur status not precluded him from accepting $185,414 in prize money, he would be ranked No. 7 on the pro’s money list.

“He’s the best junior I’ve ever seen come out of here,” said Norris West, who has been involved in the San Diego Junior Golf Association for 26 years. “I don’t see how he can miss.”

Golf fans and representatives of the media have pestered tournament officials this week for information on Mickelson’s every move. He drew a crowd for practice.

“They want to know how to get ahold of him and when’s he teeing off,” Rick Schloss, director of public relations for the tournament, said. “He’s the attraction . . . We had a crowd for a Monday press conference with him, and I can only recall one other Monday press conference we’ve ever had, and that was with Seve Ballesteros.”

Although he remains an amateur, Mickelson’s left-handed rise to prominence has not been lost on the pros.

“My little boy is 4 years old and he’s naturally right-handed like Phil, but he likes hitting the ball left-handed,” said Simpson, a former San Diego Junior Golf Association participant. “After watching Phil’s success, I’m now in no big hurry to change him.”

John Cook, who won the Junior World title earlier in his career at Torrey Pines, said, “It’s interesting. It’s a story . . . but if all of a sudden he starts reading his press, it could be trouble.”

The book on Mickelson, however, suggests that if he doesn’t have his head lowered over a putt, it’s buried in a Spanish or sports psychology book.

“The notoriety he’s got from the press and his tremendous record are something,” O’Meara said. “Sometimes that’s hard to handle, but he sure seems like he’s handling it with tremendous poise. My hat’s off to him.”

Pavin, who comes off a solid 66 in Wednesday’s Pro-Am, tipped his visor in Mickelson’s direction after failing to catch him in Tucson.

“It’s always hard to say how players will adjust from the amateur ranks to the pros,” Pavin said, “but of all the amateurs I’ve seen, Phil is as promising as any.”

Like his fellow pros, Stadler has also been witness to Mickelson’s success. He finished three strokes behind Mickelson in fourth place in Tucson, and as good as “the kid” is, he said, he should be in no big hurry to turn pro.

“I think he’s going to be a great addition to the tour when he turns pro,” Stadler said. “My only hope is that he goes to school for four years. I really do.

“Unless you’re a (Wayne) Gretzky, who comes out of the junior ranks and kicks everybody’s butt for next 10 years, it takes time. How often does somebody like that come along? This kid is good, but I wouldn’t say he’s phenomenally good. I wouldn’t say he’s the (Johnny) Miller of the 70s.”

Not yet. But Mickelson took a toehold on the ‘90s with his victory in Tucson. He overcame a triple-bogey on the 14th hole to birdie two of the final four for the victory.

“Yeah, I was surprised,” Stadler said. “I didn’t think he’d crack, but I figured he’d go out and shoot 73 or 74 and maybe finish in the top five or six and have a great tournament. That would still be all everybody would be talking about.

“But to win the way he did . . . That’s phenomenal. He may very well be somebody special.”

Stadler, who is also from San Diego, has contributed time and money to the local junior golf association to produce players such as Mickelson.

He knows junior golf. His 11-year-old son played in more than 20 local tournaments last year. His annual pro-am charity bash for Children’s Hospital and the San Diego Junior Golf Association recently generated an estimated $50,000.

“Of all the kids I’ve seen moving up the ladder, this one looks like he’s going to be very good,” Stadler said. “Phoenix to me was more impressive than Tucson. You listen to everybody talk and it’s like he had a lousy tournament, and he finished (in the money).

“My God, the kid’s 20 years old. He’s an amateur. That’s great. I was happy to make the cut when I played as an amateur in some of these things. And most of them I didn’t make it.”

Stadler has compiled eight victories in his 16-year career, including a Masters victory in 1982. But he has not won since 1984, and may forever be remembered here for being disqualified after kneeling on a towel to hit a shot from under a tree in 1987.

The disqualification cost Stadler a second-place finish and $44,000.

“Even four years later it’s like it happened yesterday with most of these people,” Stadler said. “A lot of people remember it, and I’d rather not.”

Stadler finished here tied for fourth last year, four strokes behind Dan Forsman’s winning 275. He’d like to consider himself a contender for this year’s top prize of $180,000, but he’s been troubled by tendinitis in his wrists.

“I bet my wife a hundred bucks I’d be home Friday night in Tucson, and I end up leading after Friday,” he said. “I’ve been trying to deal with it, but it’s probably going to need four to six weeks off and right now’s not when I want to do it.”

While Stadler deals with the pain of each swing, Mickelson will try to solve a golf course that has shown no favoritism to local heroes in the past.

“His best score on the south course has been a 69 in the Junior World in 1986,” West said. “I don’t think he plays the course all that well, but this young man is capable of doing anything.”

Mickelson will join a field of 156 in splitting time between Torrey Pines’ north and south courses for the first two rounds. After the field is reduced to the top 70 scorers, including ties, the tougher south course will determine the winner over Saturday and Sunday.

“I’m having a good time and there’s just a lot of support and that’s great,” Mickelson said. “It’s fun. I mean I’ve grown up watching players like Craig Stadler play here.

“A guy like that is just fun to watch. There’s something about him that separates him from everyone else. He’s one of those guys that stands out.”

Just like a 20-year-old college student who hits golf balls good enough left-handed to win a professional golf tournament.