Phil Mickelson hasn’t won since the Open Championship at Muirfield three years ago and if his history tells us anything, his best chances to end that victory drought in 2016 will come on the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing.
Lefty, hoping for something if a career comeback at the age of 46, has 42 victories on the U.S. circuit, including 19 in California and Arizona.
Mickelson recently committed to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Feb. 11-14, a week after he plays in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, not far from where he was an All-American and won three NCAA individual championships at Arizona State.
Last year, he skipped Pebble Beach to spend time with his family after playing in the old Crosby for 20 consecutive years.
Lefty, who has slipped to No. 34 in the World Golf Rankings, also can be expected to play on Jan. 28-31in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, not far from his childhood home in San Diego, for the 23rd consecutive season.
Mickelson can’t play in all of the West Coast events every year, but he also has made his mark in the Career Builder Challenge, the former Bob Hope Classic in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs, and the Northern Trust Open at Riviera in Pacific Palisades, the Los Angeles-area event on the PGA Tour.
Lefty has won four times at Pebble Beach, the last in 2012; three times in Phoenix, the last in 2013; at Riviera twice, the last in 2009; the Bob Hope twice, the last in 2004; at Torrey Pines three times, the last in 2001, and the defunct Tucson Open three times–including as an amateur in 1991.
“I do enjoy the West Coast,” Mickelson said a few years ago. “I’m excited to play golf and I practice very hard on the West Coast when the season is coming around and I haven’t played for awhile, I’ve got a lot of energy and I’m excited to get back out.
“I think all of these things, plus the fact that I grew up here and used to walk these fairways on the outside, I just have a great love for the West Coast. I’ve been fortunate to play well here.”
Lefty also won the Mercedes Championship, now the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, twice at La Costa in Carlsbad before it moved to Kapalua in Hawaii.
Mickelson is a U.S. Open victory short of the Career Grand Slam, but the West Coast Slam certainly is his.
