Phil Mickelson can't shake off knee surgery rust, misses FBR Open cut

Citing rust from rehabbing his two knee surgeries and having not played since his Torrey Pines triumph in 2008, Phil Mickelson missed the cut at the FBR Open with a 7-over two-day total, putting him T123 and seventeen shots behind leader Charley Hoffman. Mickelson is only six players up from the bottom.

“It’s been a long time since I played competitively after a long off-season of rehab, and I have to learn how to compete at the highest level again,” said Mickelson.

Wait a sec…Oops, sorry, that’s Tiger Woods who had the knee surgeries & the long layover. I just assumed Mickelson had to have some grand excuse for playing so poorly this week in front of his Arizona faithful. But it just looks like Lefty is the same head case who is well on his way to a 2009 season full of disappointment and letdowns.

Mickelson’s “mini-me", Anthony Kim, also missed the cut at 4-over.

Maybe I’m taking in too much from one bad weekend, but my gut tells me Mickelson is going to have a pretty bad 2009, winning, if anything, some second-flight tournament. Mickelson lost his hold on the No. 2 spot in 2008 to Sergio Garcia, and didn’t exactly take advantage of Tiger Woods’ absence either in the second half of the year. He had a prime opportunity to pounce on another major or two in 2008 - as we all know Mickelson has more talent than his three major championships may indicate. If there was ever an indication that Mickelson’s time as Woods’ main threat was over, it was when Lefty was stuck at the bottom of the 13th fairway, duffing his way out of contention at Torrey Pines on Saturday while Woods hobbled to the lead.

By the way, I think we can bank on Tiger Woods not missing his first cut back from whatever is his first event in 2009. He won’t win it, but he’ll finish Top 20. Also, look out for Rory McIlroy to win a tournament or two this year and vault himself into the World’s top 20, as he’s started out strong at Dubai this week on the European Tour.

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