He Wasn’t About to Be Left Out of Dad’s Game

Phil Mickelson Sr. said the day after his son had won the PGA Championship that the oft-repeated story of young Phil first hitting golf balls in their backyard at 18 months old was not quite accurate.

“At that age, he was just retrieving the chip shots I was hitting,” the elder Mickelson said from his home in the Del Cerro area of San Diego. “He was about 22 months old when I bought him a right-handed child’s wood.

“But when he went to swing it, he swung it left-handed because that’s how he saw me swinging my club. I tried to get him to hit it right-handed, but the way he swung the club was so fundamentally sound for that age, I decided it was OK.”

The senior Mickelson couldn’t find a left-handed child’s club, so he took the wood into the garage and made some alterations, turning it into a left-handed club, and today Phil Mickelson is known as Lefty.

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Trivia time: When and at what tournament did Jack Nicklaus win his record 18th major?

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Practice range: Of his chip shot out of the deep rough on the 18th hole Monday at Baltusrol, Phil Mickelson said, “I tried to remember some of the shots I hit as a kid in my backyard.”

His father, who lives in the same house where his three children grew up, said, “That modified club I made him became his favorite toy. He used to take it to bed with him.”

As Phil grew older, he’d spend hours and hours chipping in the backyard. “Not once did I ever suggest to him that he go out and practice,” Phil Sr. said. “He did it all on his own.”

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On Cloud 9: Phil Mickelson’s gang, which included his parents and in-laws, flew home to San Diego on Phil’s private plane.

“We really didn’t need an airplane,” Phil Sr. said. “We were flying pretty high as it was.”

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High energy: Mickelson’s son Evan, who turned 2 on March 23, was shown on national TV, running around on the 18th green, his blond locks flowing. And when he got off the plane in San Diego, he immediately started running around on the tarmac. Said grandpa Phil, “He has only one speed. He doesn’t know how to walk.”

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Name game: The New York Post headline on the back cover Monday, after Pedro Martinez and the Mets had lost to the Dodgers, read “PED-WOE.”

The headline on the back cover Tuesday read “WONDER-PHIL.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1997, Davis Love III shot a 66 at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y., to win the PGA Championship by five strokes. It is Love’s only major championship.

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Trivia answer: At the 1986 Masters.

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And finally: The New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro reported that Mickelson sidestepped other commitments Monday to sign autographs as a couple of hundred of fans waited. According to Vaccaro, one official with a walkie-talkie asked, “He’s not really going to sign all of them, is he?”

Mickelson, noticing the anxious looks among the autograph seekers, said, “Don’t worry. I have plenty of time.”

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.