Golf loses a golden opportunity

A day that began with great promise for the game of golf ended with Phil Mickelson walking off the 18th green of the Farmers Insurance Open on Sunday with the third-best score.

In his threesome.

Mickelson’s final-round 73 over the Torrey Pines South layout, and his 280 total, weren’t nearly enough. Ben Crane, previously best known for playing at the speed that molasses flows, won the tournament by one shot with a closing 70 and a 275 total.

The over-under Las Vegas odds on Crane’s finish time was 6:30 p.m., about an hour after dark, but he had a good sense of humor afterward about his tortoise-pace reputation.

“Did anybody notice that I was waiting on another group on one hole?” Crane said.

The other two in Mickelson’s group turned out to be bigger threats for the title, each making birdies on the last hole while Mickelson chipped short and two-putted for par. D.A. Points finished with 71 and 278. Phenom Rickie Fowler shot 70 for 277 and did so wearing bright orange pants. Every sport needs a pumpkin, and now golf has one.

Golf needs more than that right now, in this, the Tiger-less season of its discontent. With Woods sightings still at zero, the mantle falls to Mickelson, No. 2 in the world and both a leading player and personality on the tour. The headlines are his now. Only the size of type is to be determined. When Woods got into his mess, golf rolled the eight-ball over to Mickelson, and he stands directly behind it now.

This was his first tournament. It was played on a course made famous by the scenery of high cliffs along the Pacific Ocean and Woods’ incredible U.S. Open playoff limp to victory in 2008. CBS had the telecast, first-teamers Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo had the booth, and Mickelson had great Sunday position, only four shots off the lead.

Golf also had controversy, and Mickelson was involved. He was using a club with grooves that had been outlawed by the sport but had been grandfathered in since it was manufactured prior to April 1, 1990, and had been part of a lawsuit. Fellow pro Scott McCarron called Mickelson’s use of the club “cheating.”

Wow. Great stuff. What next? A fistfight in a sand trap?

Mickelson turned up the heat Saturday, telling the media he had been “publicly slandered.” Good thing he wasn’t “privately slandered” or he would have really gotten hot.

Strait-laced PGA officials may project that they want none of this sort of shenanigans, but deep inside, they had to be tickled.

This could help people forget Woods. This was a buzz in a sport that could quickly, minus Woods, become curling. There is nothing wrong with the image of bland, which golf has, as long as there is occasional contrast. Woods was the anti-bland, and probably will be again soon. Even the truck drivers will watch him play.

But for now, Mickelson is the next-best thing. He is maybe 40% bland, but he has created a following by being tirelessly fan-friendly and by occasionally having a gambler’s mentality about the game. That has won him three majors and probably cost him several more. If the only shot he has is through the hospitality tent and off the hamburger cooker, he will try it. And the fans will love it.

Just before Mickelson’s threesome made its way to the 18th green, a dozen red-jacketed people scurried out, surrounded the green and faced the bleachers. They were a security group called “Elite Services,” and one member said, never allowing her eyes to stray from the bleacher full of potential hooligans, “We don’t want anybody jumping out of the stands for Phil.”

Before Sunday, the setup was perfect for golf. In his first tournament of the year, in the year of the Tiger Void, Mickelson could win and hurry on to Los Angeles and Riviera for this week’s Northern Trust Open, where he would be the two-time defending champion.

There would be buzz, even without Woods. And that volume should stay high early in the week, when Commissioner Tim Finchem, tie perfectly straight and demeanor stone-cold serious, meets the media Tuesday to address the Mickelson-McCarron dust-up.

Wow again. Will there be a fine? Maybe even a suspension? Will Mickelson and McCarron sit at opposite ends of a table and glare at each other while Finchem speaks? Will we get punches or kissing and making up?

The good news for organizers of the Northern Trust is that, even with Mickelson faltering here, golf got enough attention in San Diego to provide a decent carry-over. Besides Mickelson, the tournament of Hogan’s Alley and Humphrey Bogart sitting under a tree and the best natural 18th-hole amphitheater in the sport has an appealing field. That includes major champions Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink, Fred Couples, Ernie Els, Corey Pavin, Padraig Harrington, Y.E. Yang, Ben Curtis, David Duval, Davis Love III, Justin Leonard, Lee Janzen, Mike Weir and Vijay Singh, as well as highly regarded Steve Stricker and Anthony Kim. Orange-pants Fowler will be there too, representing the younger set, alongside painters-cap Ricky Barnes.

If that isn’t enough to keep the golf ball buzzing, John Daly said Sunday that he was reversing the retirement he had announced in the parking lot Friday. In his next life, Daly will be a boxer.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com