IF EMOTIONAL adrenaline and the good wishes of the game around the world can have any bearing on the outcome of a major golf championship, then the bookmakers would be well advised to stop taking bets on Phil Mickelson when the left-hander tees up in the US Open at Bethpage on Long Island later this month.
Currently on leave from the PGA Tour in America to look after his three children Amanda, Sophia and Evan, and wife Amy, 37, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last month, Mickelson is expected to make a brief return to competition and warm up at t
he St Jude Invitational next week before challenging for the US Open title.
Although Mickelson has never won America's national championship, he's been runner-up four times and was the sentimental favourite in New York even before his wife's cancer made golf a lowered priority for the three-time major winner.
While it would be difficult to imagine any scenario at the US Open which could match last summer's championship at Torrey Pines for drama after Tiger Woods overcame stress fractures and torn knee ligaments to lift the crown, success for Mickelson at Bethpage may prove to be a storyline almost as compelling.
As long ago as 1999 at Pinehurst, Mickelson was a serious US Open contender determined to put family first. As he chased down the late Payne Stewart, the southpaw insisted he would walk away from the tournament if Amy, pregnant with their first child, went into labour. As it turned out, he only lost the title when Stewart holed a 15-foot putt on the final hole.
Hugely popular in and around the New York area – he won the US PGA at Baltusrol in New Jersey four years ago – Mickelson has also endured near misses in the US Open at Shinnecock in 2004 and Winged Foot in 2006 as well as Bethpage in 2002.
The decision to return to Bethpage is thought to have been taken because Amy won't have major surgery before the end of this month.
"We have a wonderful team of doctors helping us, and it is believed we caught this early," Mickelson revealed. "We are anxiously waiting for a number of test results that will help guide us in the best possible direction."
Mickelson's schedule, including appearances next month in the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and the Open at Turnberry, will depend on Amy's recovery from surgery. If her operation doesn't take place until July, his unbroken streak of majors since 1994 may end at Bethpage.
Darren Clarke, who lost his wife Heather to cancer in 2006, was among the first to telephone the American. "We had a good conversation about various things," Clarke said. "It's very sad news, but it's early stages so we hope all the tests and everything else go as well as we all wish for."
Many of the players competing in the Colonial tournament at the weekend wore pink to show their support for Amy. "The 11 days since we received the diagnosis have been very difficult," she wrote on Mickelson's website. "But this incredible gesture helps us feel so much stronger."
When Mickelson hears the cheers of the galleries at Bethpage, he knows the game will be paying a heartfelt tribute to Amy as well as his own endeavours.
