Phil Mickelson won’t play Ping wedge

Phil Mickelson’s Ping is gone for now.

The No. 2-ranked golfer in the world made it clear Wednesday that he wants his game to create the buzz, not his much-discussed wedge with the square grooves.

In a preemptive move, Mickelson, the two-time defending champion of the Northern Trust Open, said he would not be using the controversial Ping Eye 2 when play begins Thursday.

“I’m playing too well to get sidetracked here,” he told reporters. “I’ve got a unique opportunity, and I want to take advantage of it without other distractions.”

That unique opportunity is this: Mickelson, 39, could make history at Riviera Country Club. He has won this tournament two years in a row and only six others have done that -- Macdonald Smith, Ben Hogan, Paul Harney, Arnold Palmer, Corey Pavin and Mike Weir. Mickelson could make it three in a row and stand alone.

So gone is the Ping -- even though it is legal, thanks to a loophole. Padraig Harrington, who also brought the wedge to Riviera, said he would not use it this week either. It isn’t clear if anyone would use the club that sparked such a storm last week.

With world No. 1 Tiger Woods on an indefinite sabbatical, Mickelson has been front and center since making his 2010 debut last week at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

Mickelson had hoped to be in the headlines because of the caliber of his golf. Instead he finished 19th, five shots behind winner Ben Crane and caught up in controversy after Scott McCarron said Mickelson’s decision to play the Ping club was akin to cheating.

Clubs such as the Ping are square-grooved (or U-grooved) and, as of Jan. 1, are categorized as “nonconforming.” Instead players have had to adjust to playing irons with a less thick groove, a V-groove. The single exception is the 20-year-old Ping Eye 2 wedge that is allowed because of a lawsuit settlement in the 1990s.

Before Mickelson met with reporters, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem held a news conference at Riviera and spoke for the first time on the McCarron-Mickelson debate.

While saying that he wished he had done a better job of letting players know about the Ping loophole, he also said, “We did not anticipate a wide range of usage of the Ping Eye 2.”

He also called McCarron’s words “unfortunate commentary,” and that the PGA Tour and the U.S. Golf Assn. are hoping to find a satisfactory way out of the dilemma.

Mickelson would prefer the distractions this week be kept to whether a putt rolls right or left and whether an approach shot should be hit to the back of the green or the front.

On the final day here in 2007, had Mickelson hit a better chip on the final hole, he might have already had his third consecutive title. He had needed only par to win. Instead his chip was short, his 18-foot par putt missed and Charles Howell III beat him in a playoff.

Last year, Mickelson beat Steve Stricker, helped mightily by an opening-round 63 that put him ahead from the start, and a third-round 62. He began the final round four shots ahead of Stricker, fell behind by two strokes with three holes left, then birdied two of the last three holes to win.

Stricker, ranked third in the world, is back in what is the strongest field of the PGA Tour season so far this year with 13 of the top 30-ranked golfers at Riviera, including Anthony Kim, Jim Furyk and Harrington.

Mickelson, after being a reluctant participant at Riviera early in his career and finding the course not to his liking, said he has no good reason why he has played so well here lately.

“I have always loved the golf course, but I had never scored well or played well on it,” he said. “But for whatever reason I seem to have gotten it figured out.”

But most of the questions for Mickelson were about his Ping wedge.

Mickelson said he was disappointed that the groove rule existed, and then was allowed to take effect with the Ping loophole.

“You cannot put players in a position to interpret what the rule has meant,” Mickelson said. “If these governing bodies cannot get together to fix this loophole, if players stop using this wedge, which would stop the pressing of the issue, then I will relook at it and put the wedge back in play.

“If there’s no pressure among these organizations to make changes, I will immediately put the club back in play.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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