Phil Mickelson has an unfortunate history of seeing bogeys on the closing holes of US Open final rounds, and the same sort of short putting troubles and misfires happened again today: after an eagle at 13 put Lefty in a tie for the lead, he followed with a par and then closed out bogey-par-bogey-par to finish two strokes behind Lucas Glover as he headed into the clubhouse.In other words, it was psuedo-tragic scene, simply because Mickelson was easily the crowd favorite at Bethpage Black this weekend, especially considering his wife Amy's struggles with breast cancer leading up to the Open.
Phil's not completely done -- Glover's approaching the final hole with a two shot lead over Mick, David Duval and Ricky Barnes, but it seems pretty safe to say that this will be another case of Lefty coming oh-so-close and not being able to close in the final holes of a US Open.
There's not much more to say -- the Open is obviously a difficult set of holes, but in his first three rounds, Mickelson finished the final four holes at three-under (over 12 holes, obviously) and on Monday afternoon, he shot two-over. Stereotyping golfers is an annoying habit, but there's little reason to think that Mickelson -- even with the sympathy sent his way -- will hear much more than a lot of "can't close" talk.
