Golf: Major success still in sight for Mickelson despite 77

PINEHURST, North Carolina - If Phil Mickelson had shot a second round seven -- over 77 at any normal PGA Tour event he would be packing his bags and heading home.

But the 105th US Open at Pinehurst Number 2 is certainly not an average event and after returning a 77 to sit on six-over 146 at the halfway mark, Mickelson believes he remains in contention to capture the year's second major.

"I think I still have a good shot but I've got to play some good golf," said Mickelson, three times a bridesmaid at US Opens. "Everybody is going to struggle. It's just tough."

So tough that Mickelson's 77 was his worst round at a US Open since stumbling to a 79 in the final round at Oakmont in 1994.

Playing the back nine first, Mickelson found himself in early trouble and kept digging deeper, carding six bogeys including four straight heading into the turn.

A birdie on the third, the only one of his round, offered some relief but two more bogeys coming home completed a dismal morning for the world number four.

"It's a tough course to turn things around on because you just can't make birdies," said Mickelson.

"The more you try to make birdies the more bogeys you're going to make. I really wasn't trying to make birdies I was just trying to salvage pars and had a tough time doing that.

"It's a tough golf course. You can't get frustrated. Guys are going to have a bad stretch. That nine-hole stretch I had may or may not have taken me out of the event.

"You just can't play aggressive here, you just can't.

"I think (with) 36 pars you have an outside chance at winning and that's kind of what I'm going for."

One of just nine players to slip under par with an opening 69, Mickelson had looked well placed to make yet another run at the major he came tantalisingly close to winning the last time the US Open was staged at Pinehurst in 1999.

The late Payne Stewart won that championship by a single stroke.

The following day too many bad shots from 35-year-old Mickelson combined with a bit of bad luck left him in the danger zone with the cut likely to fall at about six or seven-over.

Still, he was formulating a game plan for the weekend.

"I just can't change," said the American. "I can't change the way I want to play the course because it's a very conservative set up that I have and I've just had a hard time making birdies on this golf course. I think everybody does.

"So the best way to make up ground is to make three or four pars rather than try to make a birdie."

- REUTERS