How a Strategic Schedule Improves Phil Mickelson's 2014 US Open Chances

Phil Mickelson hopes to capture the one major championship that has eluded him throughout his Hall of Fame career—the U.S. Open—by strategically planning his 2014 tournament schedule around it.

He's also buying into the old adage of "less is more" when it comes to the number of tournaments he intends to play. For an aging yet still very capable Mickelson, who is no longer in the prime of his career at 43 years old, it's a game plan that makes perfect sense.

"It really took a lot out of me these last couple of months where we played nine out of 12 weeks and it was difficult for me to get the proper practice session and preparation for each tournament," Mickelson admitted in a recent press conference at the WGC-HSBC Champions event in China, via ASAP Sports. "I don't want to enter a tournament where I feel unprepared, and that's kind of the baseline that I'm going to use as I build my schedule next year."

Mickelson's accomplishments are legendary. He has three Masters victories, a PGA Championship triumph and just a few months ago, he added the British Open Championship to his impressive resume. That leaves the U.S. Open, a tournament he has finished as a runner-up in a record six times, as the sole remaining obstacle in his quest for a rare career Grand Slam.

Only five other players have accomplished that feat. If Mickelson's 2014 strategy proves to be successful, he'll be the sixth.

"There's no hiding the fact that winning the U.S. Open would be my career goal of completing the career Grand Slam, and that's the final leg that I have," Mickelson told reporters recently at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, via ASAP Sports. "I'll be putting most of my focus into winning the U.S. Open, but I'm not going to skip the Masters and the importance that event has because every green jacket is meaningful to me, as much as I love that tournament."

Rather than filling his calendar with as many tournaments as possible and thus burning himself out traveling to and participating in lower-profile events, Mickelson has decided the proper use of his preparation time leading up to the most important events of the year, the major championships—and specifically the U.S. Open at famed Pinehurst No. 2 in June—will likely produce better results.

Talking with reporters in China, via ASAP Sports, Mickelson named the Masters, the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, the Scottish and British Opens, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship as tournaments he likely would compete in next year, with one-week lead-ups in some cases.

In preparation for the U.S. Open, however, his plan is to play the two PGA Tour events immediately before it—the Memorial Tournament and the FedEx St. Jude Classic. If he sticks to that schedule, it will be his only three-week stretch of golf for the entire year.

Tiger Woods, the No. 1 ranked player in the world and one of the five golfers who owns a career Grand Slam, voiced his support of Mickelson's decision.

"I don't blame him (for cutting down), I don't blame him at all," Woods told Reuters reporter Tony Jiminez in a recent interview. "I just think it's important to be fresh, it's important to be ready for the major championships, the World Golf Championships, the Players Championship."

Even as Mickelson cuts back on his tournament schedule, it's still a full plate for any competitive golfer, but the abbreviated agenda keeps him rested and ready, both physically and mentally, and it affords him the opportunity to play some practice rounds at Pinehurst, where he will undoubtedly hope to fine-tune the specific shots he'll need for success there.

Pinehurst No. 2 has served as the site of more single golf championships than any course in America. In 2014, Pinehurst will make history again, becoming the first to serve as host to the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open Championships in consecutive weeks.

It's also where Mickelson recorded one of his many second place U.S. Open finishes, losing to the late, great Payne Stewart there in 1999.

Strategic shot options abound at Pinehurst No. 2, where a three-year redesign has recently restored the golf course, both in spirit and form, to its original Donald Ross design.

Pinehurst No. 2 is best known for its crowned, undulating greens, which are some of the most complex and widely hailed in the world. Mickelson will need to be especially sharp in this aspect of his game if he's going to achieve his Grand Slam goal.

"To use an analogy, when I am putting well, not every putt goes in, but I catch lots of lips—the ball comes close," Mickelson told reporters in China, via ASAP Sports. "And when it's close, I know that eventually they are going to fall in. I use the same analogy for the U.S. Open. I've come close so many times. I've played well so many times in that tournament that I believe it will happen soon."

Soon, as in 2014? That's Mickelson's plan.