Phil Mickelson misses birdie putt, chance to make cut on possibly his final U.S. Open hole

Phil Mickelson scanned the scoreboard and surveyed the scene on the 18th green at Oakmont Country Club, fully understanding the stakes that he faced on the final hole Friday afternoon.

Only 14 feet, 10 inches of Poa annua stood between Mickelson’s ball and the cup, a birdie putt separating him from making the cut for the 27th and, perhaps, final time at the U.S. Open.

Mickelson, who turns 55 on Monday, has won the Masters three times, the PGA twice and the British Open once. The U.S. Open remained elusive, the only major championship missing from his resume. He’s come so close, finishing second six times. Most famously, he blew a 1-stroke lead with a collapse on the 18th for a double bogey in 2006 at Winged Foot.

In an agonizingly close call, his putt rolled just wide.

Lefty missed both the cup and the cut.

He finished 4-over 74 for the second consecutive day, one stroke away from qualifying.

Even though Mickelson, at 50, became the oldest player to win a major by claiming the PGA in 2021, he was no longer considered a contender to win the U.S. Open at Oakmont. He had missed the cut in four of the last five U.S. Opens, including the last three.

This might have been his last chance, which Mickelson said was a high likelihood, as his five-year exemption for winning the PGA expires after this season. The USGA could grant him an exemption, as it did previously, but there’s no guarantee.

“We hope he earns his way in, and I think he’d tell you the same thing,” USGA chief championships officer John Bodenhamer said Wednesday. “That’s what he did last time. We gave him one, and then he went out and won the PGA Championship. So, wouldn’t put it past him.”

Mickelson came here as the only player in this field who competed in the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont with golf giants Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, finishing 13-over to tie for 47th place. He had missed the cut at Oakmont in 2007 and again in 2016.

The stakes were raised, putting more pressure on Mickelson. Once the top challenger to Tiger Woods in his prime, Mickelson was an everyman hero to golf galleries. That was before his defection to LIV Golf. He played his first round with little fanfare, receiving polite applause instead of raucous ovations, and declined interview requests.

Yet through 32 holes, Mickelson was positioned to play on the weekend. He made birdie on No. 4 and rebounded from bogeys on Nos. 7 and 8 to par the next two holes before recovering on 11 with a 14-foot birdie putt. He was 4-over with seven holes to play, and golf fans allowed themselves to celebrate his chances of making the cut.

That’s the danger of Oakmont, which turns comfort into a torture chamber in the sequence of one swing. Viktor Hovland called it getting U.S. Opened: “There’s not much you can do about it.”

Of course, Mickelson would take his chances.

His tee shot on the par 5, 489-yard No. 15 landed in the rough to the right of the fairway. His second shot overshot the green and found the rough on the left side. He chipped onto the green, within 5 feet of the cup – only to miss his putt and finish with a double bogey.

All Mickelson had to do was make par the rest of the way, which is easier said than done, to make the cut. Mickelson has a reputation for taking risks, sometimes sabotaging his own chances.

And Oakmont has a reputation for its rough, which Mickelson complained about on social media before Thursday’s opening tee times by sharing a video of groundskeepers mowing the rough but not taking off much length.

“They’re not working,” Mickelson wrote on X. “They’re not cutting (crap).”

That proved prescient, as Mickelson’s tee shot on No. 17 landed on the rough atop the first greenside bunker. He tried to advance the ball onto the green, only for his swing to drop the ball into the sand trap. He overcorrected, hitting it 25 feet past the cup.

Another double bogey, which put Mickelson at 8-over.

Oakmont claimed its share of victims Friday: Justin Thomas, who won the PGA in 2017 and 2022; Bryson DeChambeau, who won the U.S. Open in 2020 at Winged Foot and last year at Pinehurst; Dustin Johnson, who won the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont; and Shane Lowry, who finished tied for second behind Johnson in 2016.

It would soon add Mickelson to that list once again.

Mickelson needed some magic. Instead, he missed.

Then he politely passed on an interview with a group of reporters, following a bittersweet ending with an expeditious exit. If this was Mickelson’s final U.S. Open moment, it played out the same way as the course he couldn’t conquer: Rough.