Phil Mickelson at US Open 2015: Sunday Leaderboard Score and Twitter Reaction

The year's first major saw Phil Mickelson turn back the clock and nearly win his fourth green jacket. Chambers Bay was not nearly as forgiving, playing host to yet another piece of evidence that the Mickelson-Tiger Woods era in golf is dead and gone. 

As Woods watched from home after missing the cut, Mickelson finished the 2015 U.S. Open in anonymity, shooting a three-over 73 to sit in a tie for 69th place going into the clubhouse with an overall score of plus-13. After shooting a promising 69 on Thursday, Mickelson went 14 over in his next 54 holes, highlighted by an ugly 77 in Round 3 that put him out of contention for good.

The finish echoes Mickelson's history at the U.S. Open, which typically sees him competing deep into Sunday or play out his last 18 holes in the early-morning hours. He has eight top-five finishes and nine outside the top 40 if you include his appearances as an amateur.

Mickelson's round Sunday continued a trend of poor iron play that was prevalent in his ugly third round. He hit only 10 of 18 greens despite being on the fairway after 11 of 14 drive attempts. That consistently put him in difficult spots on the green, which have been the bane of the field's existence all week. Mickelson putted 30 times, around an average total for the field.

Poor approaches set the tone for a high-variance round that saw Mickelson move back and forth between brilliant and hapless. He carded four birdies against a double and five bogeys, many of them paired with the other. A three-putt on the par-four second gave him his first bogey of the day, which was immediately followed by a masterpiece birdie on the par-three third.

A bogey at the difficult sixth and a birdie at the eighth allowed him to make the turn at even par, which was immediately undone on No. 10. After taking advantage of the short par-four at No. 12, Mickelson dropped back above par for the day with an ugly bogey at the 13th caused by him hitting a greenside bunker.

He capped off the round with another birdie-bogey combo at Nos. 16 and 17 before really going off the rails on No. 18. After a solid fairway drive, Mickelson sprayed approach after approach all over the perimeter of the green before finally knocking through a double-bogey putt. 

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

Finishing well out of contention allows Mickelson to avoid yet another U.S. Open heartbreak—he's finished second at the event six times—but is nonetheless discouraging. He arrived at Chambers Bay playing his best golf of 2015, earning three top-fives in his last five tournaments.

Still winless since his 2013 Open Championship triumph, many looked at this week as his best opportunity to complete the career Grand Slam. Longtime golf analyst Peter Jacobsen went so far as to say it would be "fate" Mickelson completes the one accomplishment that has long eluded him, according to Emily Kay of SB Nation. For his part, Mickelson seemed unconcerned with the prospect of the career slam slipping through his fingers.

"I don’t feel that sense of urgency," Mickelson said earlier this week, per Kay. "It’s something I really would love to do is complete the career grand slam. ... If I continue to do what I’ve done the last eight months or so, there’s no reason why I couldn’t play at a high level for a while."

If Mickelson is encouraged by his last eight months, that might actually be the most concerning aspect of his game. The second-best golfer of his generation by any account, Mickelson is closing in on his first 24-month title drought since the turn of the century. For the first three months of 2015, Mickelson didn't even so much as contend at a tournament and was cut twice.

Jason Sobel of ESPN was one of many to highlight a generational gap between Mickelson and the field:

Having just turned 45, it's understandable that Mickelson views his career in different terms now. But to think he still has plenty of time to pull off the career Grand Slam ignores two years' worth of hard evidence that his best golf is behind him.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.