In the absence of injured world number one Tiger Woods, second-ranked Phil Mickelson was the tournament favourite going into this week's PGA Championship. By the time a gruelling four days of golf ended on the tough Oakland Hills Country Club layout, Mickelson had to settle for a share of seventh place, seven strokes behind winner Padraig Harrington.
"I would have liked to obviously play better but I had a good week," the American left-hander told reporters after shooting a level-par 70 in Sunday's blustery and damp final round. "I had an enjoyable time here in Michigan and interesting weather. I didn't expect it to be cool. I thought it was going to be warm the whole time. I think we all did. "But I had my up and downs, had a little go of it early in the round today and tried to make a move."
Mickelson, a three-times major winner who clinched the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol, reeled off three consecutive birdies from the par-five second to get within three strokes of the lead. However, he failed to pick up any more shots over the last 14 holes on his way to a four-over aggregate of 284. "It was a tough final round and I thought even par was a good score but it obviously was not a good enough round coming from as far back as I was," the 38-year-old Californian said.
"We have a long wait now for the next major, the Masters," he added, referring to next April at Augusta National. "In the meantime we have a pretty exciting five-week stretch here (on the PGA Tour) with four FedExCup events and the (September 19-21) Ryder Cup."
Asked what he would be working on in his game in the final portion of the season, he replied: "I'll spend a lot of time on short game. I let a lot of shots slide around the greens this week so I'll spend time trying to get that dialed in." Four-times champion Woods was sidelined for the rest of the year from mid-June after having reconstructive knee surgery.
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