Phil Mickelson 'gets real,' drops 15 pounds in advance of Open Championship

Say this for Phil Mickelson: you can never quite predict what he’ll do next. After a six months that’s brought us everything from Victorious Phil (at Pebble Beach Pro-Am) to Arrogant Phil (bragging about the cash he made beating Tiger Woods one-on-one) to Social Media Maestro Phil to Sad Surrendering Phil after the U.S. Open, we’ve got a new one:

Earnest Phil.

Just days before the 2019 Open Championship, Phil took to social media once again to talk to all of us about what it’s like being Phil Mickelson. And in sharp contrast to the “Phireside Phil” chat of earlier this summer, Phil is now ... serious?

Here, have a look:

Phil looks good! Losing 15 pounds thanks to a six-day fast will do that to ya. The question, of course, is whether that will help him improve his game at all.

Since that Pebble Beach win, his highest finish is a T18 at the Masters. He’s missed cuts in the last two tournaments he played since the U.S. Open, at the Travelers and the 3M Open, and he rolls into Royal Portrush needing something, anything, to spark his game.

Will Slim Phil become Claret Jug Phil? We’ll see, and it’ll be fun to see what comes after that.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

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