Phil Mickelson gives grim prognostication on future U.S. Open chances

Another U.S. Open has come and gone, and Phil Mickelson remains winless in the event in his career. The five-time major champion finished T52 this past week at Pebble Beach, a course he’s won five times (in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am) over the course of his career.

But Lefty is 49 years old now and he admitted even before the third major of the golf season that this year was his best chance at completing the career Grand Slam.

“The difficulty is that when you’re in your 20s you feel like you have multiple chances,” Mickelson said at the Memorial Tournament last month. “And when you’re turning 49, you’re like, I’ve got two more chances, this year, and maybe Winged Foot, and that’s about it. With that being the only one in the four that I haven’t won, and what it would offer me and how I look at my career, I put more pressure on it. That’s the difficult thing.”

Now, with the 2019 U.S. Open in the rearview mirror, Mickelson is beginning to accept that he may just never win the national championship.

“I really don’t have many more chances,” Mickelson said to reporters on Wednesday at the Travelers Championship. “Probably have to come to the realization I’m not going to win the U.S. Open.”

Mickelson has six runner-up finishes in the U.S. Open in his career, most recently finishing T2 at Merion in 2013. But Mickelson, who will be turning 50 years old during the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club, insisted he’s not going to stop chasing the last accomplishment of his Hall of Fame career.

“I’m not going to stop trying,” Mickelson said. “I’ll keep trying. You never know.”

Mickelson is at TPC River Highlands this week going for his first Tour win since the aforementioned Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. Mickelson, who hasn’t won a major since the 2013 Open Championship, is a two-time winner of the Travelers Championship in 2001 and 2002.

Mickelson enters the event with 50/1 odds to win and is slated to begin his first round alongside Jordan Spieth and Marc Leishman at 1:00 p.m. ET from the first tee on Thursday afternoon.

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