Phil Mickelson’s West Coast swing will look decidedly different this year.
For the first time in 29 years, Mickelson will miss the Farmers Insurance Open, his hometown event about 12 miles from his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. In a tweet announcing his upcoming schedule, he also said that he will skip the Genesis Open at Riviera, a course where he has won twice and finished second on two other occasions.
Instead, Mickelson, the 36-hole leader at the Desert Classic, will play the Waste Management Phoenix Open, AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and then the WGC-Mexico Championship, where he is the defending champion.
This year’s condensed, new-look schedule – and Mickelson’s stated desire to only play regular-season events with minimal rough – led to his change in plans.
Though he hasn’t missed Torrey since 1990, he is winless on the South Course since 2001 – the year before it was redone. Since then, he has just one top-10 since ’09, and he told reporters Thursday that the 7,600-yard course with juicy rough is “not really a great place for me.” A few years ago he also missed out on the opportunity to renovate the North Course because of a legal technicality. Though he was disappointed to miss his hometown event, he tweeted that he would “make it up to the great community of SD!”
Mickelson has had more success recently at Riviera, with a tie for sixth last year and two wins and a runner-up there since 2008.
If Mickelson had played both Torrey Pines and Riviera, the 48-year-old would have made six consecutive starts on the West Coast.
Source: Internet
