KEY GRIP

The greens at Oakmont Country Club are said to be slick as bowling lanes, but that’s not why Phil Mickelson walked into his Tuesday media session looking as if he had raided Earl Anthony’s ball bag.

Mickelson wore a black wrist support to protect an injury suffered during a practice round at Oakmont two weeks ago.

That’s right, Mickelson nearly took himself out of the 107th U.S. Open before he ever got in.

Rumors swirled Tuesday that Mickelson might withdraw, that he wouldn’t get the chance to avenge last year’s double-bogey blowup on the 72nd hole at Winged Foot.

That he might be unable to enter his 17th U.S. Open, still in search of his first victory, after finishing second four times.

The gossip was bunker bunk -- at least for now.

Mickelson said he was good to go for Thursday, or, at least, good enough to go.

“I probably won’t be pain-free like I had hoped, but I should be able to have it be manageable as long as I don’t aggravate it or hit it in the rough,” Mickelson said.

Given Mickelson’s history in this event, the “rough” line drew a few yucks and even a smile from the quote producer.

Mickelson also joked that he lobbied U.S. Golf Assn. Executive Director David Fay to postpone the Open until next week, but that Fay didn’t bite.

The injury is not serious, Mickelson says, diagnosed by two doctors as inflammation that will heal with rest.

Rest, however, was the last thing Mickelson had scheduled on his pocket calendar.

Father’s Day weekend has, for years, coincided with Mickelson’s birthday -- he turns 37 on Saturday -- and the golfer’s quixotic pursuit of America’s golfing national championship.

Mickelson will be accompanied this week, as usual, by his caddie Jim “Bones” MacKay. He’ll be partnered for his 1:36 p.m. Thursday tee time with Adam Scott and Jim Furyk.

Mickelson will also welcome in a new friend, cortisone, confident the steroid injection will allow him to get his wrist to the cut line.

Mickelson did not play a practice round Monday, played only nine holes Tuesday and will play only nine holes today.

“It’s certainly not the way I wanted to be coming into this tournament,” he said of his preparation process.

He has not hit any practice shots with his driver -- insert joke here about Winged Foot -- but he says he’ll have to use his big club on some of Oakmont’s most menacing holes. The par-five 12th, at 667 yards, is the longest in major championship history.

Circumstances were different, yet, for the second consecutive year, Mickelson seemed to be heading into this year’s Open on the upswing.

Last year, he trundled into Winged Foot in search of his third straight major championship after wins at the 2005 PGA and the 2006 Masters.

Then, of course, came the 72nd hole, with Mickelson needing only a par to win.

With NBC announcer Johnny Miller imploring Mickelson not to use his driver, Mickelson pulled out his big stick, blocked his tee shot into a tent, hit a tree on his punch-out, knocked his third into a greenside bunker, carded a double bogey and handed the championship to Australian Geoff Ogilvy.

Mickelson was tilting toward this Open with a different momentum.

Unhappy after finishes of T-36, T-23 and T-24 (at the Masters), Mickelson switched coaches, dumping Rick Smith in favor of Butch Harmon, and watched his game move back to center of fairway.

Mickelson immediately tied for third at the Byron Nelson and Wachovia and then was the player in winning the Players.

Mickelson then bounded to Oakmont for a practice round and, during his usual meticulous preparation process, injured his wrist while practicing out of the rough.

“It was just numerous shots of jarring at contact, club stopping,” Mickelson explained.

He tried to play at Memorial the next Thursday but had to withdraw after 11 holes.

He also pulled out of last week’s St. Jude Classic in Memphis and went to work on getting his wrist ready for this week.

Mickelson, a natural right-hander, said he “over-stressed” his good wrist while compensating for his injury and has been ordered this week not even to sign autographs.

He is treating his ailments with ice, therapy and what Mickelson called “some new light techniques to stimulate cell activity.”

This is going to be a different U.S. Open for Mickelson, historically a hard-charger who has endured his share of crash-and-burns.

When was the last time he took on a major without the full intention of winning it?

“That’s not really in my thought process,” he explained of this week’s strategy.

He’ll never completely cleanse himself of last year’s meltdown -- that one’s etched in golf gore lore.

“Oh no, I’ll still hear about that,” he said.

But, in odd irony, Mickelson’s injury may not allow him to go for broke this year -- and is that a bad thing?

Instead of hacking irons out of tall grass, he will be resigned to using a hybrid club to slide the club face more easily through the contact area.

“But again,” Mickelson said, “I don’t plan on hitting in the rough.”

That line produced more chuckles.

His sore wrist, though, is no joke.

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com