PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Thirty-one months and 53 tournament starts have passed since Phil Mickelson last won a tournament — the longest drought of his career.
But whether or not that is weighing heavily on his mind is impossible to tell because Mickelson on Wednesday sounded as stoked about his game as he has in years.
When he last played, Mickelson missed a 5-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am that would have gotten him into a playoff with eventual winner Vaughn Taylor.
Instead of leaving the West Coast gutted by not winning for the first time since he won the 2013 British Open, Mickelson came East buoyed by his play. He has two top-three finishes in 2015-16 after having only three such results in the previous two seasons combined.
He enters this week ranked first on the PGA Tour in scoring average at 69.02.
“Whether I won or lost the tournament, I was still using it as a stepping stone for the rest of the year for where my game has gone,’’ Mickelson said. “It’s gone through a difficult time for a couple of years. And the fact that I’m playing well again, I’m in contention, and I’m hitting shots with ease; I’m showing up at the golf course not trying to find something but continue refining what I’m already doing, it’s a different feeling when I show up.
“So win, lose or what-have-you, it’s not really affecting the confidence that I have or the direction that I feel like my game is going. The biggest challenge is staying patient, when I know that I’m playing at a level that’s high enough to win. The challenge is to not think about the results and just play, which I’ve actually done fairly well the first month. But that’s going to be the challenge.
“It’s like the way it was when I was trying to get my first major. I know that it’s just a matter of time. It’s going to happen, because I’m just playing too well for it not to.’’
Rickie Fowler, who lives just a few miles from PGA National, was gutted when he last played, driven to tears when he failed to close out the Waste Management Phoenix Open because he wanted to win with his family — particularly his grandfather who has never seen him win in person — in attendance.
“I mean, I’m fine,’’ Fowler said. “It’s obviously one that I wanted to get. Felt like I was in a great position to get it, but I’ve been playing well, all through last summer, through the fall. Just really focusing on this week and see if we can get off to a good, solid start.
“I’ve been playing well, and yeah, Phoenix was unfortunate not to get the win there. Hideki [Matsuyama, who won] played some amazing golf down the stretch. [I] came up just short. Someone had to win, someone had to lose, so yeah, just excited to be able to spend some time at home, hang out with some friends and see if we can make this one a good one.’’