Mickelson, the public’s favorite, eyes US Open
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AP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 19, 2009 10:01
FARMINGDALE - Phil Mickelson isn't from New York, but for the next week, those strangers behind the ropes at Bethpage Black are his new best friends. Golf’s top player Tiger Woods is the favorite to win US Open, but the world's No. 2 player Mickelson is seen as the people’s favorite.
The applause started 22 strides before Phil Mickelson reached the 18th green during his practice round, crescendoing until he tipped his cap and nodded in appreciation.
No one, least of all Mickelson, seemed to mind that his ball was in a front bunker.
Mickelson isn't from New York, but for the next week, those strangers behind the ropes at Bethpage Black are his new best friends. For his lone practice round Wednesday, many wore pink shirts and ribbons to show support for Amy Mickelson's fight with breast cancer, shouted encouragement whenever the world's No. 2 player walked past and even sang a day-late verse of "Happy Birthday."
When the U.S. Open began Thursday, Tiger Woods is the favorite - but Mickelson is favored by the people.
"I'm putting everything I have into this week, because I don't anticipate being able to play for a little while," Mickelson said. "And the fact that my normal support system, Amy and the kids and so forth, aren't going to make the trip this week, I'm kind of hoping to have that or feel the support to kind of help me through the week." Mickelson isn't planning to play the British Open, since his wife begins treatment for the recently diagnosed cancer July 1. After this, he doesn't know when or where he'll play again. He's not here for appearances sake.
He wants to win, believes he can win, believes he can make his wife's request - to bring her that silver championship trophy - happen.
The weight of her cancer looms, though, surely set to make the tough-enough chore of winning a major even more pronounced. "Hats off to how he's handled it because certainly it's so hard to do," Woods said. "Everywhere you go people are reminding you of it, and you can't get away from it. And you think that the golf course would be your escape, but it's not. You're surrounded by people wishing you well the entire time. ... You just can't get away from it. It's hard."
Tough challenge
Bethpage is hard enough under normal circumstances.
This national championship started with a record 9,086 players sending in entries, eventually getting whittled down through qualifying tournaments and a handful of withdrawals. At the end, 156 held entries for the U.S. Open.
And now, 155 have the world's No. 1 on their radar.
Woods has never shrouded the fact that major championships are the weeks he builds his year - his career, really - around. Jack Nicklaus, he quickly says, is the greatest golfer of all-time, based on Woods' most simple measuring stick. "He's got 18," Woods said. "I'm at 14."
His quest for major No. 15, one that'll put him three back of Nicklaus on the all-time list, begins with a marquee grouping of reigning major champions, as he'll join Padraig Harrington and Angel Cabrera.
"From tee to green," Woods said, "this golf course is all you want." Woods is a dual defending champion of sorts, beating Rocco Mediate in a playoff at Torrey Pines last year and also winning when the Open first came to Bethpage in 2002.
"He's by far and away the favorite, I would have thought," said Geoff Ogilvy, who won the U.S. Open at nearby Winged Foot in 2006. "But ... see, nobody walks around thinking we can't win this week because Tiger's playing. I don't believe anybody thinks that way. They know Tiger's going to play well, or you assume that he's going to play well."
Bethpage will be set up as the second-longest U.S. Open layout in history, and as an added bonus, it'll have three different par-4s measuring more than 500 yards. In other words, rain, rain, go away.
Forecasters are saying there's now as much as a 70 percent chance of rain - perhaps heavy - throughout Thursday's opening round, and there isn't a whole lot of relief expected through the weekend, either. Bethpage's greens have been soft and receptive, but the fairways have been spongy and the always-thick U.S. Open rough is teetering on becoming borderline-impossible.
Could be suspended
"If we can't play it, if it's not fair to be playing the ball as it lies, we'll suspend play," said Jim Hyler, the chairman of the United States Golf Association's championship committee. "We'll stay here until we get a champion." Mickelson, who was second at Bethpage in 2002 - the fourth runner-up finish he's posted in a U.S. Open - wouldn't mind getting that fairytale ending.
His wife left him notes and cards and texts, little reminders of her support. While she's home in California, she wanted her husband to be at Bethpage Black, for the same reason that they held a birthday party for their daughter earlier this week. They crave normalcy right now, and to the Mickelsons, normal is for Phil to be in the hunt at a major.
"I'm going to just do the best that I can," Mickelson said. "I feel like my game is ready."
No one, least of all Mickelson, seemed to mind that his ball was in a front bunker.
Mickelson isn't from New York, but for the next week, those strangers behind the ropes at Bethpage Black are his new best friends. For his lone practice round Wednesday, many wore pink shirts and ribbons to show support for Amy Mickelson's fight with breast cancer, shouted encouragement whenever the world's No. 2 player walked past and even sang a day-late verse of "Happy Birthday."
When the U.S. Open began Thursday, Tiger Woods is the favorite - but Mickelson is favored by the people.
"I'm putting everything I have into this week, because I don't anticipate being able to play for a little while," Mickelson said. "And the fact that my normal support system, Amy and the kids and so forth, aren't going to make the trip this week, I'm kind of hoping to have that or feel the support to kind of help me through the week." Mickelson isn't planning to play the British Open, since his wife begins treatment for the recently diagnosed cancer July 1. After this, he doesn't know when or where he'll play again. He's not here for appearances sake.
He wants to win, believes he can win, believes he can make his wife's request - to bring her that silver championship trophy - happen.
The weight of her cancer looms, though, surely set to make the tough-enough chore of winning a major even more pronounced. "Hats off to how he's handled it because certainly it's so hard to do," Woods said. "Everywhere you go people are reminding you of it, and you can't get away from it. And you think that the golf course would be your escape, but it's not. You're surrounded by people wishing you well the entire time. ... You just can't get away from it. It's hard."
Tough challenge
Bethpage is hard enough under normal circumstances.
This national championship started with a record 9,086 players sending in entries, eventually getting whittled down through qualifying tournaments and a handful of withdrawals. At the end, 156 held entries for the U.S. Open.
And now, 155 have the world's No. 1 on their radar.
Woods has never shrouded the fact that major championships are the weeks he builds his year - his career, really - around. Jack Nicklaus, he quickly says, is the greatest golfer of all-time, based on Woods' most simple measuring stick. "He's got 18," Woods said. "I'm at 14."
His quest for major No. 15, one that'll put him three back of Nicklaus on the all-time list, begins with a marquee grouping of reigning major champions, as he'll join Padraig Harrington and Angel Cabrera.
"From tee to green," Woods said, "this golf course is all you want." Woods is a dual defending champion of sorts, beating Rocco Mediate in a playoff at Torrey Pines last year and also winning when the Open first came to Bethpage in 2002.
"He's by far and away the favorite, I would have thought," said Geoff Ogilvy, who won the U.S. Open at nearby Winged Foot in 2006. "But ... see, nobody walks around thinking we can't win this week because Tiger's playing. I don't believe anybody thinks that way. They know Tiger's going to play well, or you assume that he's going to play well."
Bethpage will be set up as the second-longest U.S. Open layout in history, and as an added bonus, it'll have three different par-4s measuring more than 500 yards. In other words, rain, rain, go away.
Forecasters are saying there's now as much as a 70 percent chance of rain - perhaps heavy - throughout Thursday's opening round, and there isn't a whole lot of relief expected through the weekend, either. Bethpage's greens have been soft and receptive, but the fairways have been spongy and the always-thick U.S. Open rough is teetering on becoming borderline-impossible.
Could be suspended
"If we can't play it, if it's not fair to be playing the ball as it lies, we'll suspend play," said Jim Hyler, the chairman of the United States Golf Association's championship committee. "We'll stay here until we get a champion." Mickelson, who was second at Bethpage in 2002 - the fourth runner-up finish he's posted in a U.S. Open - wouldn't mind getting that fairytale ending.
His wife left him notes and cards and texts, little reminders of her support. While she's home in California, she wanted her husband to be at Bethpage Black, for the same reason that they held a birthday party for their daughter earlier this week. They crave normalcy right now, and to the Mickelsons, normal is for Phil to be in the hunt at a major.
"I'm going to just do the best that I can," Mickelson said. "I feel like my game is ready."