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If the season ended today, Phil Mickelson would be player of the year, story of the year and would have hit the shot of the year (the putt to win the Masters). But since we're just moving into July there's plenty to play for; the People's Champion doesn't want to go down as the Philly Flop. And that raises the first question of our Mid-Season Scorecard:

The British Open will determine if Mickelson has totally reinvented himself. Of the four majors, Lefty has never been able to get his feel at the British. His best finish in 11 appearances is a T-11 at St. Andrews in 2000. Shinnecock proved he can handle a fast-running links set-up and while that final-round 71 looks good in the aftermath of brutal conditions, it doesn't mask the double bogey on the 71st hole of the tournament. As many have said, "You wouldn't see Tiger or Jack doing that." Sustaining intensity is a matter of hunger and only Mickelson knows if he's capable of taking it to October. It's the want-to factor.

Only as it relates to losing his No. 1 ranking. Vijay Singh made two runs this year that had players saying he was the best player in golf. Ernie Els could have overtaken the No. 1 position with a win at the U.S. Open. Neither challenger could take the final step as Tiger went T-3, T-3, T-3 and T-17 while spraying the ball all over the TPC-Las Colinas, Quail Hollow, Muirfield Village and Shinnecock. The man is still No. 1 with his C game.

Two wins on the PGA Tour, a second-place finish at the Masters and a T-9 at the U.S. Open look like a continuance of the same consistent, heady, focused Ernie Els who has played the best golf worldwide of any player since 2002. What the numbers don't show is the disappointment of Els driving off the parking lot at Shinnecock, unable to say a word publicly about the final-round 80 he shot in the final group of the 104th U.S. Open. Coupled with the devastation of Mickelson's back-nine 31 at Augusta, and his 20-footer for the green jacket, and you have a big hurt thrown on the Big Easy. There's no reason to think his break from the game will have him reflect and return stronger than ever. But you still have to ask, as Ernie must be asking himself: How many chances does a player get to win a major? People are starting to compare him to Greg Norman, but he has 10 good years left in the majors, starting in two weeks at Royal Troon.

I mean beyond Hal Sutton, the PGA of America, Bernhard Langer and selected members of the European Tour. It just seems like this event has lost some of its fire. Part of it is Cup burnout. Part of it is the recurring theme: Underdog Europe wins another "upset." Part of it is that without Seve, Nick Faldo and now Colin Montgomerie, it's up to Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia to fill the bill. Even they don't seem to want it as bad as everybody did in the 1980s and '90s.

Quiet, Please

Reverberations from the Shinnecock Open could be felt in Troon, Scotland, and Kohler, Wis., host sites for the next two majors. The funny fairway bounces that turned last year's British Open at Royal St. George's into an arcade game shouldn't be as prevalent on the Ayrshire Coast of Scotland, where a wet spring has taken some of the fire out of Royal Troon. "I don't expect it to be overly severe," said Peter Dawson, secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. "Some fairways are pretty lively, but not to the degree St. George's was. We expect a good reception from the players." It has also been wet in Wisconsin. Record rains had workers at Whistling Straits top-dressing and hand-mowing the fairways in preparation for the PGA Championship. Just to make sure they are on the same page, resort owner Herb Kohler and Kerry Haigh, senior director of tournaments for the PGA of America, met last week to discuss course setup. Kohler figures a links course guarded by fescue, measuring nearly 7,600 yards on the windswept shores of Lake Michigan, will be tough enough without green speeds reaching 13 on the Stimpmeter. "We just witnessed a day in golf that was over the top," said Kohler, who is courting the USGA for a future U.S. Open. "I told Kerry, 'It's in your hands.' It's so important to not let it get out of control. We don't need to jazz it up."

Probably Royal Troon, and beyond that nobody knows -- not even Duval. Many players at Shinnecock felt like they were hearing Double-D employ an exit strategy. At some point it will be about the score and from what we saw at the U.S. Open we might not see much of Duval until '05.

No. When you're an NCAA champ, a rookie of the year in 2001, and ninth on the money list in 2002, you're supposed to be a star. The five birdies on the back side at Avenel on Sunday showed the potential. Charlie's just going through a tough curve. Golf is about more than the swing and he's by far the most single-minded of the kids.

Certainly during the weeks when he's putting well. Three wins in 10 months, including the Players Championship, is a world-class run. Detractors point back to the 6-iron he snatched into water on the 72nd hole at the Players, noting the "best swing" shouldn't produce that result. A better measure of Scott's swing holding up under pressure is the way he protects third-round leads.

The last two PGAs were held on purse golf courses, traditional in the sense that they were tree-lined tracks, the type you'd expect hosting a major. They were won by two players you've never heard of at 10-under (Beem at Hazeltine in '02) and 4-under (Micheel at Oak Hill in '03). So what's going to happen along the shores of Lake Michigan, on 7,600 yards of Pete Dye links land? One theory is that the unpredictable bounces put too much luck into the game; Ben Curtis in last year's British Open Championship being the best example. The other theory is that all the truly great players have won on the links. You want a name? He's not as obscure as Beem, Micheel -- or Curtis for that matter -- but Tim Clark keeps appearing on major championship leaderboards, including last year's PGA. Fine, you really want to know who's going to win at Whistling Straits? Danny Ellis.

That's a question best answered by Singh (3 wins), Garcia (2) and Scott (2). Singh had a bad start at the Masters and a bad finish at the U.S. Open. Garcia is full of confidence again and Scott just needs to see the hole instead of worrying about putting mechanics. They're all capable of grabbing a major and stealing POY from Mickelson. And of course there's Woods, who could be in the middle of another '98, in the direction of another 2000, or lost somewhere between "finding it" and telling yourself that you're close to finding it. You keep thinking any week it's going to click and he'll be back being Tiger again. Then you see him laughing at some of his shots and it makes you wonder. No worries, he seems to be saying. It's early. We're only making the turn.

Tim Rosaforte is a senior writer at Golf World magazine