For Mickelson, it's good to be back
Phil Mickelson Returns To Golf
AKRON, Ohio -- If he were to walk away today, if he were to decide to spend the rest of his days flying airplanes or producing short-game videos or even overseeing his possible stake in Waffle House franchises, Phil Mickelson's golf legacy would be secure.
He has won three major championships and a total of 36 PGA Tour titles. He might be remembered for some of his near misses, but he also would be recalled as among the best in the Tiger Woods era, a certain Hall of Famer.
And with other interests and seemingly plenty of wealth, it would be easy to see him say goodbye, especially in light of recent developments.
Mickelson's wife, Amy, is undergoing cancer treatments, as is his mother, Mary. At age 39, Mickelson has been a well-known name in golf for some 20 years, a long career. And few would have been surprised if he had shut it down for the year after tying for second at the U.S. Open.
Back then, there was a cloud of uncertainty. Thursday, as Mickelson played his first tournament in seven weeks at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, some of the fears had subsided and Mickelson was able to use the time away to capture a healthy dose of perspective.
"I missed it more than I thought I would," said Mickelson, the No. 2-ranked player in the world who opened with an even-par 70, shooting a 32 on his final nine holes. "I missed playing golf, and I missed competing. I missed both of those aspects, and in the offseason, I enjoyed taking that time off. But this was different.
"I've just been playing golf ever since I was a little kid. I've just loved playing golf. I've always loved competing, whether it was for a soda, a golf ball, tees or on the PGA Tour for huge purses. I missed the competition. I also just miss being on the golf course. It's where I've grown up."
Mickelson said he didn't want to take the game for granted, and that his time away -- which included Tom Watson's near miss at the British Open last month at age 59 -- gave him pause. He wondered about extending his career, maybe playing longer than he once might have thought.
That's good to hear for folks who love Phil. This is typically the time of year when Lefty is eyeing the finish line and can't wait to get the golf season completed. It is telling that of Mickelson's 36 tour wins, only six have come after July.
Yet now he talks with a new perspective that his family's health issues have produced. Absence made the heart grow fonder. It made him take stock of his career and how he wants to approach it in the future. A guy who might have walked away seems to want to stick around a bit longer.
He is grateful to be here, much more positive now that the prognoses for his wife and mother are encouraging. Mickelson was not offering specific details but did say, "The most important thing is that Amy and my mom are doing well. I'm excited about that, and it lets me practice a little bit with a better frame of mind."
And he used the opportunity to remind us that thousands of women across the country are dealing with breast cancer. And that the PGA Tour has had more than its share of heartache this year: Chris Smith's wife was killed in an auto accident; Champions Tour player Ken Green's brother and girlfriend were killed in an auto accident that led to the amputation of part of Green's leg; and Jonathan Byrd's father recently died of cancer.
"It seems like the players really get behind and emotionally support guys out here on tour when they're going through things," Mickelson said. "It's a pretty cool group of guys."
Mickelson walked onto the 10th tee Thursday morning to a packed grandstand of well-wishers. Undoubtedly, those fans were there to see Ernie Els and Camilo Villegas, too, but they gave Mickelson the loudest reception, and he reciprocated by pumping his drive down the middle of the fairway.
From there, however, Mickelson played the kind of round you would expect from someone who has not competed for so long. He double-bogeyed his second hole despite having just 120 yards to the green; he bounced back with a birdie at the next, then bogeyed the 14th hole when he missed the green by 30 yards to the left.
And so it went.
But Mickelson rebounded nicely on the front side, making three birdies and a solid 10-footer for par on the ninth hole to finish at even par. It was a nice comeback.
But this week was not about winning for Mickelson anyway. It was about getting back between the ropes, about chipping away the rust, about renewing his love for the game. A few wayward shots were not going to get him down.
Fans of Phil should take it as a good sign that he visited Hazeltine National last week, site of next week's PGA Championship. For several years, those early visits have been part of Mickelson's major championship preparation, and he did it before the U.S. Open at Bethpage, too.
That doesn't guarantee success, but it does suggest that Mickelson's mind is on the task at hand. And while he had more serious matters to think about after the U.S. Open with Amy in the hospital, his thoughts did wander.
"I think that mental rehearsal is every bit as important as physical rehearsal," he said. "When I had my nurse gown on, I would mentally rehearse shots and stuff to just kind of keep myself sharp, even though I wasn't touching a club. … So when I came back and was finally able to swing a club, I was able to play fairly decently."
If you can shed the image of Mickelson in a nurse's gown, you could not have asked for a better return to competitive golf.
Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com.
