Devil Ball Golf's 18 for '15 (Part 2): Lefty's U.S. Open chances
Welcome to Part 2 of Devil Ball Golf's 18-part 2015 preview, where we'll look at key questions heading into the new golf year as well as set expectations for the world's current top 10 players.
After Phil Mickelson's incredible Sunday 67 at Muirfield to surprisingly capture the Open Championship in 2013, the golf world's attention immediately turned to the 2014 U.S. Open. Everything lined up for Mickelson to finally break through in the major that has teased him the most and was the only left he hadn't yet captured.
Mickelson has six runner-up finishes in the national championship, and the string of them began in 1999 at Pinehurst No. 2 when Payne Stewart sank a 20-foot par putt to steal Lefty's first major in dramatic fashion. The Open returned to that site last June, with golf's storytellers hopeful for the perfect ending to Mickelson's quest for a U.S. Open, a sixth major and the career Grand Slam.
That wasn't in the cards. Mickelson was never a factor, and Martin Kaymer took full advantage of the perfect weekday draw to coast to a second major title.
While Mickelson didn't complete Majors Bingo in North Carolina, he gets his second crack at that feat in Washington this June when Chambers Bay hosts the U.S. Open, its first major. The public course near Tacoma, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., will play firm and fast, perhaps susceptible to wind off of nearby water and will be an unknown quantity to practically every player in the field. That may not play into Mickelson's hands.
Consider the sites for Mickelson's five majors: venerable Muirfield, major-stalwart Baltusrol and Augusta National, home to the Masters. The relatively scant pedigree of Chambers Bay doesn't jibe. Add in that Mickelson is coming off his worst season in a decade, salvaged only by a run at the PGA Championship in August.
Perhaps motivated to prove the game isn't passing him by and that his legacy will live among the greatest of the greats, Mickelson has every reason to show one more time that his talent is ageless.
Read all of the Devil Ball Golf 18 for '15:
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
