New Decade, New Reality For Mickelson

Last Friday afternoon at Torrey Pines, less than 30 minutes after his truncated appearance in his hometown Farmers Insurance Open had ended with a missed cut, Phil Mickelson went to work on the practice tee – again.

Fit, trim and eager for another new golf year, Mickelson found himself searching for something positive to pack into his luggage for the long trip to Saudi Arabia to play in the European Tour event this week.

More on that in a moment.

Mickelson had called an emergency session with swing coach Andrew Getson at what could have been happy hour. But two starts into 2020, Mickelson had missed two cuts, the first time in his professional career he’s failed to make the weekend in his first two events of the year.

In Friday’s second round on Torrey’s North Course, Mickelson had hit just two fairways. He hit just seven over two days but still managed to shoot 1-over par, two strokes higher than he needed to play Saturday and Sunday.

Watching Mickelson hit driver after driver Friday afternoon, it was obvious he couldn...