Phil Mickleson Overconfident at Royal Birkdale?

I know, confident at a major is the last thing you would expect Phil to be. Mickleson generally epitomizes the little brother syndrome that afflicts every tour player not named Eldrick. But big brother isn't playing this week. 

So why in the world would Phil Mickleson spot the field so many strokes after the first round at Royal Birkdale? My only thought is that he must be uber-confident in his abilities to win from behind.

In a post-round interview after posting a plus nine, he stated that if he could shoot somewhere around par tomorrow, he would be in the tournament. It was a thinly veiled and feeble attempt to downplay this embarrassing performance on Thursday. It seemed as though he was actually trying to convince himself not to cry.

Somewhere around par is no problem for the second best player in the world, right? He can shoot 70 left-handed...I mean right-handed. Well, no, not unless the weather changes drastically in England, which is unlikely.

Only a handful of players are at even par or better after the first round. But some of these players are very good, so good that I would name my next child Colin Montgomerie (boy or girl) if they shot 79 in any round this week. Guys that Mickleson needs to make up nine to 10 shots on over the next three days to beat include Adam Scott, Retief Goosen, Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, etc.

It has been said that golf is a microcosm of life and if I knew what microcosms looked like I would try to wash them off with some anti-bacterial soap. Something about golf that is similar to life though is that you can't win on the first day, but you can lose.

In my humble opinion, Phil should start practicing for the PGA Championship tonight, because this major is over for him.

In defense of the lefty, the weather this morning was horrendous. It improved as the day went on, giving later groups an advantage. Unless the exact same pattern is followed tomorrow when the player tee-times flip, you could argue that Phil got hosed.

But that's one of the other beauties of the game of golf: it isn't fair. There is no "level playing field" in golf or life. However, you can still overcome those obstacles and succeed. Just look at that botched abortion Ryan Seacrest.

A more relevant example would be Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open. No excuses are necessary because he won. There's a huge and very visible difference in attitude and confidence between the top two players in the world.