The Golf Blog: Did Phil Mickelson mess up by withdrawing from Memorial and missing reps before US Open?
The Golf Blog says: Two weeks ago, Phil Mickelson pulled out of the Memorial after shooting an opening round 79. He said he was mentally fatigued and needed to do what’s best to prepare for the U.S. Open. Today, at 7:33 a.m., Phil stood on the 1st tee with Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson. Mickelson teed off first and proceeded to hook his ball into the cypress trees. Lost ball. Phil walked back to the tee and striped it down the middle. He stuck his approach and 1 putted for bogey, but that was really the bright spot of Phil’s day.
By comparison, playing partner Tiger Woods got in 4 decent rounds at the Memorial, eventually winning it with 3 birdies in the last 4 holes. Tiger looked solid all day and finished tied for second at -1 (leader at -4). Phil had his reasons for withdrawing from the Memorial, but they appear to have backfired. Phil’s game looked sloppy today, as well as rusty. The better move would have been for him to try to shoot a round under par on in the second round of the Memorial to get some confidence and practice going into the US Open. Instead, Phil had only the confidence-deflating feeling of a 79 and WD going into the Open. Given that kind of performance, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Phil shot 76 today.
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