Mickelson Needs a Strong Showing in a Major Way

At 10:30 a.m., Phil Mickelson was already on the putting green on what would be a 100-degree day at Baltusrol Golf Club, even though his tee time for the third round of the PGA Championship was still 4 1/2 hours away.

To Mickelson’s many fans and fervent Phil followers everywhere, his morning routine could be interpreted two ways.

The first is that he’s fastidious in his practice and tireless in his attempts to book a reservation in his own comfort zone.

The other is more basic. Mickelson wanted to see if he could stand up to the heat.

It’s not the temperature of the air, but the searing pressure of the moment that Mickelson faced Saturday at the PGA Championship, which represents his latest opportunity to win a major.

Even Mickelson’s fans -- and the tree-lined course is full of them this week -- must acknowledge that his success rate for achieving major moments is rather limited. He started Saturday with a three-shot lead, the fourth time Mickelson had either led or been tied for the lead at the halfway point of a major.

Maybe this will be the one he wins.

At the 1996 PGA Championship at Valhalla, Mickelson led by three shots after 36 holes and tied for eighth when Mark Brooks won. He was tied with David Duval and Payne Stewart at the 1999 U.S. Open and finished second to Stewart. He was tied with Shigeki Maruyama halfway through last year’s U.S. Open and ended up second to Retief Goosen.

After scrambling to a hard-earned two-over-par 72 Saturday, Mickelson is tied for the lead with Davis Love III and it’s a position that has happened once before in a major for Mickelson. He also shared the third-round lead with Chris DiMarco at the 2004 Masters, and we all know how that turned out.

So a mid-morning trip to the putting green was necessarily in order for Mickelson, who craves major titles but has only one at 35.

That puts Mickelson at the same level as Larry Mize, Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, Rich Beem, Ben Curtis and Todd Hamilton, to name a few.

Nothing against any of those players, but Mickelson stands out more because he’s a star and he always has been.

He won two NCAA championships and the U.S. Amateur. He won a PGA Tour event as a 20-year-old amateur. He turned pro in 1992 and won five times before he was 25. He has played on five Ryder Cup teams. He has won more than $1 million a year for the last nine years. He has won 26 times on the PGA Tour, three this year alone, all before the Masters.

And he’s won one major.

Last year, when he prevailed at the Masters, it was his 43rd major as a professional.

This week, here at Baltusrol, it’s his 50th.

For a major player with a major profile such as Mickelson, it’s a major omission on his record. That’s what makes what happens today so important for him.

One major championship does not reflect the quality of player Mickelson has become, almost from the moment he turned pro.

His mission isn’t that complicated. It’s not about how many houses he owns, how many cars he drives or how much money he banks. In the grand scheme, it’s how many majors Mickelson wins.

Of course, Love is in much the same position, with his triumph at the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot his only major victory among 18 tournament wins. But it’s also much different for Love. He isn’t a card-carrying member of the so-called Big Five, he’s 41 now and he even missed the cut at the Masters and the British Open this year.

Winning another major would be a surprise if Love did it, but just what you’d expect from Mickelson. For the really big names, it’s all about winning the big ones.

Why is Jack Nicklaus regarded as the best ever? That’s easy. He won 18 major championships.

Mickelson needs another major that validates his Masters triumph and proves there’s some depth to a career with quality in golf’s greatest events.

It’s not just about winning the BellSouth or the FBR Open or the Canon Greater Hartford Open, which Mickelson has done, it’s about winning majors, which he has done once.

And now he’s looking at the possibility of getting another, here in the heat and the humidity that can sap your strength and the pressure that can melt your resolve.

Mickelson is facing up to it all, but that’s what major winners do. He did it once, came close a couple of other times, he just needs to do it again.