Could Phil Mickelson Win the Grand Slam?

Kathy Bissell

When Tiger Woods won his last major, the 2008 US Open, everyone figured it would be just be a couple of  years before he matched Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championships, counted the old-fashioned way (Without The Players). The talk last year was that he’d have a chance to do it at Whistling Straits, the PGA Championship site. 

Recent history changed all those calculations and speculations.  Between June of 2008 and now, nobody has even mentioned that maybe it would be Phil Mickelson who would have a chance to win four majors in a year. If there was ever a year for it, this is the one.

Mickelson already won The Masters.  So he’s the only one who has a chance.

The US Open set up, with graduated rough and shaved fairways at a course where Mickelson has won three times, means he has to be a strong contender at Pebble Beach.  Mickelson came painfully close at Pinehurst when Payne Stewart won the 1999 US Open.  He was second four more times at the US Open, for a total of five, one more than Sam Snead.  (Snead held the record of most US Open seconds from 1953 until Mickelson posted his fifth second in 2009.)  

But it’s not just Pebble Beach that works in Mickelson’s favor this year. 

St. Andrews, with its multiple-tiered, tricky and treacherous, double greens requires a good short game and great putting.  Will Dave Stockton’s words of wisdom help Mickelson in Scotland?  Certainly there is room to hit the ball off line without consequence at St. Andrews, but unlike most US courses, unplayable also looms on nearly every hole.  If there isn’t a gale wind, Mickelson has a shot at The Old Course.      

Then we come to the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, challenging and brutal (And that’s just for the spectators). Like TPC Sawgrass, it is Pete Dye target golf at its finest.  It has water hazards that are the shoreline of Lake Michigan. It has prairie winds. I has forced carries.  Surprisingly, because we never think of Mickelson when we talk precisions and accuracy, he finished in sixth place at Whistling Straits, just two shots back of Vijay Singh, who won in a three-way playoff.

Can Mickelson win three more majors this year? It’s a long shot.  The longest of long shots. The feat no one has ever accomplished. Not even the great Jack Nicklaus.

But for Phil Mickelson, if he can control a few of his wild and crazy golf shot urges, if he can be a little more Phil Milquetoast and little less Phil the Thrill from one or two tees each round, he has the game for the rest.  Everyone knows that when it comes to short  game skills, there may be only one who is Mickelson’s equal, and that is Tiger Woods. We do know that Mickelson’s caddie, Jim “ Bones” Mackay, has one veto on a shot every year.  Maybe that veto will bring home victory at Pebble Beach.