Mickelson

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- Phil Mickelson and South African Manny Zerman are in another battle for an important amateur accomplishment.Mickelson, who attends Arizona State, beat Zerman, who attends Arizona, to win the U.S. Amateur crown last year.They are tied for low amateur halfway through the Masters.Zerman shot 71 and Mickelson 73 in the second round, leaving each with 2-under-par 142 scores.Three other amateurs didn't survive the cut.Jim Stuart, the U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, improved his score by nine shots yesterday, but the 72 still left him at 153.Michael Combs, the U.S. Public Links winner, shot 74, and the Netherlands' Rolf Muntz, the British Amateur champion, shot 75, leaving both with 155 totals.

Phil Mickelson pulled out of the Memorial Tournamenton Thursday after shooting a first-round 79. He didn't make any excuses. He didn't say that his well-documented psoriatic arthritisflared up or that he had tweaked the wrist that has given him problems over the years. He blamed it on being tired from the European vacation that he and his wife Amy had taken last week and that he had not come prepared to play in the tournament hosted by the legendary Jack Nicklaus. Mickelson said he needed to spend more time on the range with his swing coach, Butch Harmon, before theU.S.

Mamaroneck, N.Y.-- --Phil Mickelson carries several clubs in his bag: He has that humble smile, those words that drip with sincerity, and of course, the difficult struggle that is so painfully evident. Everything about him neatly lends itself to undeniable golf martyrdom. "[I] had it right there in my hand, man," Mickelson said. "It was right there and I let it go. I just cannot believe I did that." Already a fan favorite, blowing yesterday's U.S. Open in such fantastic fashion will hardly be a setback for one of the game's most beloved players.

In years past, this marked the week golf season truly got under way. That's a moving target, of course. Greg Norman, in his heyday, liked to say the season didn't really begin until the Florida swing. Then again, Norman's West Coast portfolio was limited mostly to the Tournament of Champions and an occasional Pebble Beach appearance. For a new generation, Torrey Pines brought Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson out of offseason hibernation. OK, preseason over. This year, though, it feels like they're late leaving the gate.

OAKMONT, Pa.-- --It's not so bad playing in the shadow. Jim Furyk grew up not far from here, had family and friends sprinkled in the gallery yesterday and had already won the U.S. Open once before. But he wasn't the one they were all here to see, and he wasn't the reason the gallery and media contingent following his playing group topped even that of Tiger Woods. There was a single hole that seemed to quaintly illustrate the differences between the stoic Furyk and affable Phil Mickelson.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- No amateur has ever been fitted for the green coat, emblematic of the Masters championship. And a lefthanded golfer has never been able to stand in the winner's circle either.For long, lean and lethal Phil Mickelson those dual objectives present a paramount chance to achieve a pinnacle that hasn't been attained in the 56 years since The Masters was founded.Can he be the young knight, riding a hard charger, who makes the breakthrough and shatters twin precedents over these rolling hills of northeast Georgia, otherwise known as the Cathedral of American Golf?

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- On the surface, you want to throw the kid a life raft. You want to build a crust around him to fend off the inevitable slings and arrows of the PGA Tour. You wish to guard this innocent child with the long brown face, the big white smile and deep dimples and boyish zing. You want to flash cue cards to him when he faces the prying press, save him from stumbling thoughts, awkward statements, self-embarrassment.Well, you may sheath your protective sword. Young Mr. Phil Mickelson will be just fine.

MAMARONECK, N.Y.-- Phil Mickelson stood on the edge of the seventh green during an early round of U.S. Open play. He'd just made birdie and just retrieved his ball from the cup. The crowd here, not unlike those at every other course Mickelson visits these days, had already adopted Lefty as its own. It clapped and whistled and cheered the birdie putt. And then just as the noise died down, there was one final shout from the gallery. "Take that, Tiger!" Mickelson heard it and tried unsuccessfully to stifle a chuckle.

SAN DIEGO - All you need to know about the Buick Invitational is that Phil Mickelson won a three-hole playoff when he double-bogeyed the last hole and that Frank Lickliter lost when he made triple bogey even though he eagled the same hole one day before. Go figure. With apologies to that PGA Tour slogan, These Guys Are Weird. Mickelson defended his Buick title in bizarre fashion yesterday at Torrey Pines, surviving a three-way playoff that also included Davis Love, twice knocking his drives into the trees on the deciding playoff hole and still winning, even though he finished with a double-bogey 6. "It was certainly an awkward playoff," said Mickelson.

DIRECTOR Quentin Tarantino is no Johnny Miller, but in the DVD version of the movie Pulp Fiction, there's a scene that wasn't shown in theaters involving Uma Thurman's character that I've always felt beautifully explains the universe, and in turn, the PGA Tour. "My theory is that when it comes to important subjects, there's only two ways a person can answer," Thurman tells John Travolta. "For example, there's two kinds of people in this world, Elvis people and Beatles people. Now Beatles people can like Elvis.

Tiger Woods hammered a low, drawing 3-wood, twirled his club and then gave swing guru Sean Foley a fist bump. His practice session was complete. After walking to the first tee, Woods asked an official, "What's the batting order today?" With playing partner K.J. Choi waiting in the on-deck circle, Woods put a flawed swing on that same 3-wood, and his drive settled in the right rough just 231 yards away. A so-so approach, followed by a heavy bunker shot and flubbed four-footer left Woods 2 over par before he could catch his breath at the BMW Championship.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Now it all makes sense. For months golf's No. 1 ranking has sat there on a platter, ready to be consumed by Phil Mickelson. But based on Mickelson's play, you might have wondered whether he actually wanted to overtake Tiger Woods as the world's greatest player. Now we know otherwise. Mickelson revealed Tuesday at the PGA Championship that he is being treated for a form of arthritis that left him so debilitated, he could not get out of bed during a family vacation to Hawaii in late June.

Phil Mickelson no longer is the only man with a chance to topple Tiger Woods from atop the world rankings. Coming off his runner-up finish at the British Open, Lee Westwood has inched close enough to put Woods in his sights at this week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. If the English pro wins, Woods would have to finish second to remain No. 1. "I'm feeling refreshed and ready to go again," said Westwood, who has been nursing a calf injury since before the British Open.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — A month ago at Pebble Beach, Phil Mickelson did the nearly unthinkable when he played the first round of the U.S. Open without a birdie. On Thursday, it almost happened again. Despite benign conditions that didn't worsen until after he made the turn at the Old Course, Mickelson couldn't get a birdie putt to fall until the final hole of a 1-over-par 73. That left him trailing 96 other golfers, in a fight to make the cut with worse weather on the way. "I fought hard today," Mickelson told ESPN in his only interview.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Something was missing from Phil Mickelson's card — a circle. Mickelson shot a birdie-free 75 Thursday, his first round without besting par since the 2009 Shell Houston Open. And he had not played a birdie-free round at the U.S. Open since the opening round of the 2007 event at Oakmont, where he missed the cut. "I thought I played pretty well, but I putted horrific," he said. "Making a bad swing here or there is part of the U.S. Open, but to miss those five-footers and a couple of 10-footers is very frustrating."

Jason Bohn, Jeff Overton and Blake Adams shot 7-under 63s Thursday to share the first-round lead at the Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, where 2008 champ Phil Mickelson struggled after an impressive start. Mickelson birdied the first two holes, but that was the lowest he got on a hot day with ideal scoring conditions. He finished with a 1-over 71 and is tied for 89th after 75 players broke par. It would take quite a comeback for Mickelson to win his third Colonial, a victory that would push him to No. 1 in the world ranking ahead of Tiger Woods for the first time.

MEDINAH, Ill. -- It was opening day of the PGA Championship, or, if you prefer, Round 1 of the Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson battle at Medinah Country Club. The record will show that when it came time to play, the two competitors shook hands, walked to opposite corners of the tee and then came out swinging ... their clubs. Expecting a fistfight perhaps? Scorecards showed matching 69s for Woods and Mickelson, their showdown ruled a draw, but still accompanied by the kind of fanfare that might be expected from this rare superstar matchup.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Phil Mickelson left Augusta National last April as a legitimate rival, and threat, to Tiger Woods. Mickelson had just won his second Masters in three years, his second straight major championship and his second straight PGA Tour event, having won the previous week by 13 strokes. It seemed realistic to think that Mickelson might eventually pass Woods in the world rankings had he won last year's U.S. Open at Winged Foot, something Mickelson appeared on the verge of doing until he double-bogeyed the final hole to lose by one stroke.

The Masters began with Tiger Woods returning from a humiliating sex scandal. It ended with Phil Mickelson birdieing four of the final seven holes to finish at 16-under. He shared an embrace behind the 18th green with his wife, Amy, diagnosed with breast cancer 11 months ago, while his mother, Mary, diagnosed with breast cancer in July, looked on. PG 5 Lee Westwood -13 Three bogeys on front doomed him. Anthony Kim -12 Closed with best score of tournament.

He was surrounded by deep green, he was covered in thick black, but I couldn't stop looking at the living pink. On the side of Phil Mickelson's cap Sunday, there was a decal of a pink ribbon, the international symbol of breast- cancer awareness. Through Augusta National's thick spring air, it glowed. Through the 74th Masters' weighty final round, it rocked. It sat atop Mickelson's head but played from his heart, his personal fight fueling his public battle, the pink pushing him past the coolness of Lee Westwood, the bluster of Tiger Woods, the charges from every corner, finally dropping him into the arms of his wife, Amy. Together, in afternoon shadows that felt like dawn, they tearfully hugged in celebration of a Masters victory that wrapped the sports world in a jacket of life.