Golf-Relaxed Mickelson ready to lose his Open baggage

SANDWICH, England, July 12 (Reuters) - Phil Mickelson plans to relax and enjoy the British Open this week and, judging by his appalling 20-year record in the sport’s oldest major, it seems as good as an approach as anything he has tried before.

Mickelson is undoubtedly one of the best players of the modern era and but for the presence of Tiger Woodswould have won considerably more than the near-50 tournaments on his already impressive stat sheet.

The American can still point to three Masters wins, a U.S. PGA, five second or joint-second places in the U.S. Open and more than $62 million in prize money, not to mention eight appearances for his country in the Ryder Cup.

Yet when it comes to the British Open, the graceful left-hander with a touch of genius in his wedge is somehow transformed into a Sunday morning hacker.

In 17 Opens Mickelson has finished in the top 10 only once, third at Troon in 2004, and has had only five finishes inside the top 25.

At St Andrews his roll of dishonour reads 40th, 11th, 60th and (last year) 48th. He failed to make the cut at his two Carnoustie Opens while his only previous appearance at Royal St George’s in 2003 produced a 13-over-par tie for 59th.

“I’m entering this year kind of like a fresh start,” Mickelson told a news conference after a breezy morning practice round on Tuesday. “I’m not going to worry about past performances and I’m going to try to learn and enjoy the challenge of playing links golf and I’m having fun doing that.

“I’m trying to pretend like it’s my first time here. I’m trying not to dwell and don’t want to look back on my past performances that haven’t been what I expect. I’m not trying to fix any past poor play.

“I feel excited and kind of reinvigorated to come over here and try to learn this style of golf and play it effectively.”

FIRST CRACK

Mickelson, whose first crack at the Open came when he tied 73rd as an amateur at Birkdale 20 years ago, said he had been working hard to identify why he has consistently struggled.

“I’m really coming to enjoy and appreciate the challenge that links golf provides. I haven’t necessarily done it very well but I’ve enjoyed it,@ said the 41-year-old.

“Learning some of those nuances of the course is thing I’m trying to do a little bit more effectively now, so that I can make better decisions while I’m out playing.”

Mickelson, a deadly putter on the PGA Tour but regularly off-beam at the Open, said his experience on the sodden links of the Scottish Open last week had helped convince him he was finally making progress on that aspect of the game.

“I feel much better on the greens,” he said. “The one area that I’ve felt has held me back over the years is my putting on some of the fescue-type greens, and I had a good week last week in that I started to putt better on these greens.

“I feel very confident heading into this Open Championship on the way I’m going to read and putt the greens.”

Mickelson at least feels the course presents a fairer test after it was widely criticised eight years ago. “In 2003 the rough was so thick that you didn’t have a shot if you missed the fairway,” he said. “You had to wedge back into the fairway, so everybody was hitting a shot from the fairway essentially, even though only a third of the field managed to hit that fairway.

“Because of that, the subtleties and the nuances and what really makes this course strategic and great didn’t come through the way they are this week, and now it’s starting to really shine.”