Mickelson will risk it all on attack

With Mickelson, it often does not seem so much like a choke as a kind of brain haemorrhage. One spectacular moment of blind lunacy, perhaps inspired by the rush of adrenaline he admits to feeling when in contention, has often been fatal. Choking suggests loss of nerve, yet Mickelson has blown tournaments by being brave to the point of foolhardiness, like the moment he chose to use his driver on the final fairway at Pebble Beach last year and plonked his ball in the sea.

Such a cavalier streak may one day find its own reward.

Only five men in the game's history have won more than 20 USPGA tournaments yet failed to win a major. Mickelson, who has now won 21 and had 16 top-10 finishes in the Grand Slam events, will surely reduce that group to four. Sooner or later. He is only 32, after all.

There have been times when, like Montgomerie, his failures in the big ones have given him an unmistakable hangdog air on the course. Yet as he explained eloquently here how those near-misses only made him "more determined, more excited to work harder at my game until the final breakthrough", he gave off real conviction.

What is most likeable about Mickelson is his honesty. He makes no excuses for missing out, even though it is generally recognised that he has never had the sort of lucky break that might have easily turned one of those five occasions when he has finished either second or third in a major into, say, a green jacket.

Despite appearances, neither does he appear to feel sorry for himself. Didn't he ever curse his luck at being around in the Tiger Woods era?

"Absolutely not," he responded. "If I could win one of the great tournaments with arguably the best player of all time in the field playing well, that would give me the greatest satisfaction."

Who would take odds on that happening at Muirfield this week in the one event where Mickelson's record is abysmal for a player of such rare ability? After all, in nine previous Open Championships, his best finish has been 11th.

Yet when he outlines the prodigous lengths he has gone to these past two years in an attempt to remodel his game especially for the challenge of the links, you can begin to appreciate that he never gives up on himself.

"I've made so many changes," he explained. "To my swing to create a more effective, lower trajectory of the ball through the wind; to my visualisation of shots, working them around bunkers instead of flying them over them. I've even practised putting in windy conditions."

For the two weeks before flying over to Scotland he had been slaving away at his sponsors' test centre where they had adapted three special holes with firmer fairways and open greens for him to replicate the sort of challenge Muirfield is expected to offer over the next four days.

Mickelson is accused on many counts. Critics say he lacks a killer streak or that he chokes or that he lives too much in a comfort zone, having been able to rake in the millions without ever having to win the prizes that matter. They could never accuse him, though, of lack of effort. Or, indeed, boldness.

He won't change. He says that for years he tried the Nicklaus theory of "hanging in there and eventually letting the leaders come back to you on a Sunday" but found it does not work these days because the Tiger never comes back. So, attack still had to be the watchword and vaulting into the lead as early as possible had to be the aim.

He is simply not made for playing the percentages in the way that Nick Faldo, his playing partner today, is. Mickelson has often conceded that he needs to attack, to be inventive and to home in on the pin if he is to play at his best and that playing conservatively only takes the edge off his game because it is no fun.

"I just love that feeling of coming down the stretch having a chance to win; that nervousness, that excitement that rushes through my mind and body," he enthused on the final practice day. If he is still in contention on Sunday, we may well be feeling the same emotions watching the flair or flaws of golf 's most compelling gambler.