In a major tournament that left players frustrated with both the weather and the golf course, Phil Mickelson played solid golf over the weekend, but unfortunately not more than that. He only got to play five holes on Saturday after the third round was suspended due to dangerous weather in the Detroit area. First thing Sunday morning Phil missed an eagle putt on the short par-4 6th and then played 31 holes on that day to finish with rounds of 71 and 70 and in a tie for 7th.

Let’s take a look at Phil’s scorecards for the week:

In a final round that was played in cool and windy conditions, Phil obviously had the best start he could’ve hoped for with three consecutive birdies. At that point he had it back to +1 and was only four shots behind Ben Curtis, who did lead the tournament until about midway through the 4th round. But somehow Phil lost it a bit afterwards: No birdie on the driveable 6th, a lot of missed greens and eventually a few missed par putts dropped him back out of contention rather quickly.

As a summary I think it is fair to say that Phil played four solid rounds on the “Monster” Oakland Hills CC. But I also have to be clear about the fact that obviously solid is not enough when you are looking to win a major championship.

The similarities were so obvious that at one point I thought about getting up, calling the network and asking them to please stop playing the replay of last week’s Bridgestone Invitational. In pretty much the same way he lost that tournament to Vijay Singh on Sunday, Phil Mickelson made three bogeys in his last five holes of yesterday’s 2nd round of the PGA Championship to drop into a tie for 14th. He is now four shots behind leader J.B. Holmes (-1).

While Phil’s score of +3 for the day is still an acceptable result on an incredibly difficult golf course, it was the way he fabricated those bogeys that make me shiver when looking ahead to the weekend. After briefly joining the lead early in the round and regaining 2nd spot after a birdie on the 13th, holes 14 to 18 weren’t fun to watch at all: Wild drives, uncharacteristicly poor chipping and a loose iron shot on 16 delivered the impression that Phil Mickelson was not in control of his game.

Technically speaking, Phil is right when saying that he likes his chances for the final two rounds: “Within four going into the weekend, there’s a lot of golf left out here, and the golf course is very difficult; so I think that it won’t be overly difficult if you play well to make up some ground.” I definitely agree on that - I am just asking myself if Phil will be able to regain his mental strength and touch around the greens. Otherwise it could be “Groundhog Day” again on Sunday afternoon.

Even though Phil Mickelson was never anywhere near the top of the leaderboard, the 137th British Open at Royal Birkdale turned out to be an extremely entertaining tournament. Please don’t get me wrong – I ususally want other people to do well. But every once in a while it is somewhat comforting to see professional golfers hack it around the course just like we do every weekend.

And a hack it was indeed for some of the world’s top professionals. The main reason were the extremely difficult conditions during all four days of the tournament. Day one was already difficult with constant rain and strong winds and the early starters certainly got the worst of it. As a result guys like Vijay Singh or Ernie Els failed to break 80 on a Par-70 course.

Conditions on day two were a bit better, but only slightly with light showers and gusts of over 20 mph. However, the best (or worst…) was yet to come. While the clouds moved away and everyone stayed dry over the weekend, the winds were just horrific. On Saturday a few balls were blown away from the greens and there was talk about suspending play. Luckily everything continued as planned and the tournament did end on time Sunday evening.

To give you an idea of how difficult it was over the weekend: 83 players made the cut at +9. If a player would have been at that number after two rounds and would have shot level par over the weekend, he would have finished the tournament in a tie for third!

While Ireland’s Padraig Harrington successfully defended his title won at Carnoustie in 2007, the big story of the week was really 53 year old Greg Norman. The “Great White Shark” lead the tournament after 54 holes and only slipped back into a tie for third due to a round of 77 (+7) on Sunday.

Let’s take a look at the final results and how my five pre-tournament picks fared at Birkdale:

With four out of five making the cut I feel that I didn’t do too bad. However, I think it will be a wise decision to not put too much money into sports betting…

As for Phil: Once again it was an up and down tournament for Lefty. After a really bad start in dreadful conditions on Thursday (79) he shot an excellent round of 68 on Friday to make the cut. A lot of people (including myself) thought that he would be able to play himself back into this with another good round on Saturday but that was not to be. 76 strokes in round three pretty much ended his hopes of winning the 2008 British Open. Sunday was very good again with a round of 71, but that was just too little too late…

Well, the PGA Championship is only three weeks away, so there is no time to get depressed. I am sure that Phil will do a lot better in the hot and calm conditions of Oakland Hills Country Club.

Phil Mickelson bettered yesterday’s score by a whopping nine (!) strokes to stand at 147 (+7) and make it safely into the final two rounds of the 2008 British Open at Royal Birkdale.

In significantly easier but still tough conditions Mickelson today had three birdies - including a crucial one at the last green - and only one bogey for a round of 68 (-2). The picture was completely different on Thursday when Phil’s round in continuous rain and strong winds included 7 bogeys, 1 triple-bogey and a solitary birdie for a round of 79 (+9).

Phil will need to play like today again tomorrow if he wants to have a say in this championship. The tournament leader - South Korea’s K.J. Choi - is only 8 shots away at -1 and with winds of up to 40 miles an hour forecast for tomorrow, the tournament is still wide open.

In less than 24 hours Australian Craig Parry will hit the first tee shot of the 2008 British Open at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport (UK). It has always been one of my favourite tournaments of the year because I love the special atmosphere of a Major tournament being played on a Links course. It really is a shame that they don’t play more tournaments on these types of golf course.

Here are my personal favourites for this year’s British Open:

1. Sergio Garcia (Spain) / OWGR: 7, best finish at the British Open: 2nd (2007)

Is considered to be the best player in the world without a major victory. Lost to Ireland’s Padraig Harrington in a four-hole play-off in last year’s British Open at Carnoustie after losing a six shot lead during the final round. Won the Player’s Championship earlier this year in a play-off with Paul Goydos. Finished second in the European Open on the European PGA Tour just a couple of weeks ago and battling strong winds and heavy rain. The tournament was played on a golf course somewhat similar to Royal Birkdale.

2. Justin Leonard (USA) / OWGR: 27, best finish at the British Open: 1st (1997)

The winner of the 1997 British Open at Royal Troon is an extremely consistent player who does well on all sorts of golf courses. Is enjoying a stellar season on the PGA Tour with a first (Stanford St. Jude Championship), a 2nd, a 4th and a 5th. Justin is a very good putter which is always important on the difficult greens of a British Open layout.

3. Stewart Cink (USA) / OWGR: 6, best finish at the British Open: 6th (2007)

Stewart has played in every Open since 1998. While he has missed three cuts he did finish in a very good position in 2007. Did finish a four year drought by winning the Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour earlier this year. In 15 events this year he also has a 2nd, two 3rd places and seven Top-10 finishes overall. Is in a close hunt for best player in the world without a major victory…

4. Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland) / OWGR: 29, best finish at the British Open: 11th (2005)

Growing up in Northern Ireland Graeme obviously knows how to play on a Links course. Is coming of a series of good results and did win the Scottish Open last week by beating a world-class field including Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Ernie Els. With that victory he sealed his place on the European team for this year’s Ryder Cup. However, never so far has a winner of the Scottish Open gone on to win the British Open title the following week.

5. Ross Fisher (England) / OWGR: 55, best finish at the British Open: MC (2007)

Playing in just his second British Open Fisher is one of many emerging stars on the European PGA Tour. The big-hitting Englishman is playing out of Wentworth where he regularly practises with Ernie Els. He has had a sensational 2008 campaign so far and ranks 7th on the Order of Merit. Did win the European Open by a stunning seven (!) shots from Sergio Garcia while leading the tournament from start to finish.

And what about Phil Mickelson? As much as I’d love to see him win his first Claret Jug this week I have to admit that I am not overly optimistic. Phil does not have a good record at the British Open – he has only one Top-10 in 15 starts - and I seriously doubt his ability to perform on a Links course. Although he is certainly a fabulous ball striker he somehow cannot manage to combine the low, penetrating ball flight, bump-and-run shots and great putting in order to really do well here.

Phil has been drawn into a group with Hideto Tanihara from Japan and England’s Paul Casey. The three will tee it up at 9:20 a.m. local time on Thursday morning. The weather forecast is for cool temperatures, pretty strong winds and some light rain – that won’t help Phil’s chances either as he likes to play in warmer conditions.

As for the first time ever the R&A has managed to come up with a somewhat respectable web site, please don’t hesitate to visit http://www.opengolf.com for further information and live scoring.

Sorry guys for not posting any news on Friday’s second round of the US Open, but I was simply too tired after six hours in front of the TV following Phil, Tiger and Adam from hole 1 to 18. I will try to make up for that bad service and fill you in on what happend during today’s third round:

For the third day in a row Phil Mickelson was paired with Australian Adam Scott, however this time in a much quieter athmosphere as world number one Tiger Woods was missing from the first two round’s historical threesome. And for the first time during the US Open Phil decided to put a driver into his bag. It seems that after Friday’s round of 75 (+4) he finally concluded that playing from the thick stuff (as he did regularly during the first two days) isn’t quite as bad when you’re 20 yards closer to the green…

The conditions on Saturday were quiet difficult as the marine layer did not leave the golf course all day long and the moisture it brought made the rough extremely difficult to play. Phil played a good outward nine (+1) and was still in contention until he came to the 13th hole. After missing the fairway from the tee (with the driver) and laying up into the first cut of rough approximately 80 yards from the green, it took him an incredibly four shots from that distance to finally hold the ball on the green! Wedge shots number one and two had too much backspin and rolled back off the green and shot number three was a chunk that didn’t even make it up to the green. His fourth attempt finally found the back of the green from where Phil Mickelson three-putted for a quadruple-bogey nine. His comment: “I’ve already made 9 here before - when I was 8 years old…”.

If you are really masochistic (or simply dislike Phil Mickelson), golf.com has a more detailled description on what happenend on number 13.

He did finish with a round of 76 (+5) in a tie for 46th and very much out of the tournament we all wanted him to win so much.

In what was awaited as the most spectacular grouping in recent golfing history, Phil Mickelson yesterday came out on top after shooting an even par round 71 in the first round of the 108th US Open. Being paired with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott and starting on the 1st tee, Phil had a rough front nine with three consecutive bogeys on holes number five, six and seven. However and just being his usual self, he never gave up and came back strong on the back nine with birdies on 10, 13, 14 and 18 to finish the day in a tie for 12th place.

Phil Mickelson did surprise a lot of people by not using a driver during yesterday’s round. Instead he put an additional wedge in his bag and even used his hybrid on some of the tee shots. A decision made even more interesting by the fact that Torrey Pines plays at a staggering 7,541 yards and the longes US Open course of all times. Mickelson said that he did not even want to hit it further than 300 yards since he saw the increasingly firm fairways narrowing after that distance. However, even with a fairway metal or hybrid club in his hand, driving was not the strong part of this game in round one as Phil did only hit one fairway during his poor front nine.

I really like that decision: The back nine on Thursday proved that Phil doesn’t need a driver to score at Torrey Pines. He did easily reach the Par-5 13th and 18th in two after teeing off with a three wood. Given the enormous penalty for hitting it in the rough - on number 12 Phil did advance his ball only by about 6ft. with his hybrid - I feel that it is smart to sacrifice a bit of distance when you don’t really need it.

Mickelson produced the best result in his flight while Woods shot 72 (+1, T19). Scott is a further shot back at +2 (T31). All three superstars are still very much in the mix since the tournament lead is currently held by the rather unknown US professionals Justin Hicks and Kevin Streelman at -3 (68). No offense guys but I really don’t expect these two to be anywhere near the top of the leaderboard on Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday the USGA did announce the groupings for the 2008 US Open Championships in the next week. The result was the most spectacular pairing in recent golf history as world number one Tiger Woods, number two Phil Mickelson and number three Adam Scott will tee it up together for the first two rounds.

While golf fans around the world are excited about the prospect of these three superstars battling it out in the same group for at least 36 holes, many experts are concerned about the impact the draw will have. Their main concerns are traffic both to Torrey Pines Golf Course and on the course itself and of course the effect the enormous spectactor and media attention will have on the players. While especially Tiger and - to a lesser extent - also Phil Mickelson is certainly used to a certain frenzy surrounding every shot he makes, the situation could become difficult for young Australian Adam Scott. I am really looking forward to seeing how he handles the whole thing next week.

The PGA Championship traditionally provides equally exciting groups as it pairs the reigning US Masters, US Open and British Open champions during the first two rounds. In 2006 at Medinah, that tradition resulted in a flight of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Geoff Ogilvy. The result should be encouraging for Phil: Even though he did only finish T16, he shot 69-71 during the first two days and only lost the tournament on Sunday with a final round 74. The winner that year was - surprise, surprise - a certain Mr. Woods by a margin of five shots…