Mickelson fails to cash in

2008-08-11 07:48

Bloomfield Hills - In the absence of injured world number one Tiger Woods, second-ranked Phil Mickelson was the tournament favourite going into the PGA Championship.

By the time a gruelling four days of golf ended on the tough Oakland Hills Country Club layout, Mickelson had to settle for a share of seventh place, seven strokes behind winner Padraig Harrington.

"I would have liked to obviously play better but I had a good week," the American left-hander told reporters after shooting a level-par 70 in Sunday's blustery and damp final round.

"I had an enjoyable time in Michigan and interesting weather. I didn't expect it to be cool. I thought it was going to be warm the whole time. I think we all did.

"But I had my up and downs, had a little go of it early in the round today and tried to make a move."

Mickelson, a three-times major winner who clinched the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol, reeled off three consecutive birdies from the par-five second to get within three strokes of the lead.

However, he failed to pick up any more shots over the last 14 holes on his way to a four-over aggregate of 284.

'Next major'

"It was a tough final round and I thought even par was a good score but it obviously was not a good enough round coming from as far back as I was," the 38-year-old Californian said.

"We have a long wait now for the next major, the Masters," he added, referring to next April at Augusta National.

"In the meantime we have a pretty exciting five-week stretch here (on the PGA Tour) with four FedExCup events and the (Sept. 19-21) Ryder Cup."

Asked what he would be working on in his game in the final portion of the season, he replied: "I'll spend a lot of time on short game. I let a lot of shots slide around the greens this week so I'll spend time trying to get that dialled in."

Four-times champion Woods was sidelined for the rest of the year from mid-June after having reconstructive knee surgery.

FINAL SCORES

277 Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 71 74 66 66

279 Sergio Garcia (Spain) 69 73 69 68, Ben Curtis 73 67 68 71

281 Camilo Villegas (Colombia) 74 72 67 68, Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 71 70 68 72

282 Steve Flesch 73 70 70 69

284 Phil Mickelson 70 73 71 70, Andres Romero (Argentina) 69 78 65 72

285 Alastair Forsyth (Britain) 73 72 70 70, Justin Rose (Britain) 73 67 74 71, Jeev Milkha Singh (India) 68 74 70 73, Charlie Wi (South Korea) 70 70 71 74

286 Ken Duke 69 73 73 71, Aaron Baddeley (Australia) 71 71 71 73

287 Paul Casey (Britain) 72 74 72 69, Stuart Appleby (Australia) 76 70 69 72, Prayad Marksaeng (Thailand) 76 70 68 73, Graeme McDowell (Britain) 74 72 68 73, David Toms 72 69 72 74

288 Brian Gay 70 74 72 72, Robert Karlsson (Sweden) 68 77 71 72, Angel Cabrera (Argentina) 70 72 72 74, Boo Weekley 72 71 79 66

289 - Brandt Snedeker (USA) 71-71-74-73, Nicholas Thompson (USA) 71-72-73-73, Fredrik Jacobson (SWE) 75-71-70-73, Mark Brown (NZL) 77-69-74-69, Retief Goosen (RSA) 72-74-69-74

290 - Jim Furyk (USA) 71-77-70-72, JB Holmes (USA) 71-68-70-81

291 - Sean O'Hair (USA) 69-73-76-73, Ian Poulter (GBR) 74-71-73-73, Robert Allenby (AUS) 76-72-72-71, DJ Trahan (USA) 72-71-76-72, Chris DiMarco (USA) 75-72-72-72, Geoff Ogilvy (AUS) 73-74-74, Ernie Els (RSA) 71-75-70-75, Paul Goyodos (USA) 74-69-73-75

292 - Rory Sabbatini (RSA) 72-73-73-74, Steve Elkington (AUS) 71-73-73-75, Steve Stricker (USA) 71-75-77-69

293 - John Senden (AUS) 76-72-72-73, Mike Weir (CAN) 73-75-71-74, Tom Lehman (USA) 74-70-75-74, Michael Campbell (NZL) 73-71-75-74, Briny Baird (USA) 71-72-73-77

294 - Michael Allen (USA) 70-75-71-78, Carl Pettersson (SWE) 71-74-76-73, Billy Mayfair (USA) 69-78-75-72, Charles Howell (USA) 72-76-77-69, Dean Wilson (USA) 73-73-77-71

295 - Peter Hanson (SWE) 71-73-75-76, John Merrick (USA) 73-75-70-77, Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 77-70-73-75

296 - Anthony Kim (USA) 70-75-74-77, Tim Clark (RSA) 76-72-73-75, James Kingston (RSA) 72-76-74-74

297 - Justin Leonard (USA) 74-71-72-80, Pat Perez (USA) 73-73-79-72

298 - Stephen Marino (USA) 73-74-75-76, John Mallinger (USA) 72-75-77-74, Chez Reavie (USA) 78-70-78-72

299 - Corey Pavin (USA) 75-73-73-78, Niclas Fasth (SWE) 73-73-75-78, Mark Calcavecchia (USA) 71-76-76-76, Paul Azinger (USA) 72-76-76-75, Kevin Sutherland (USA) 76-71-77-75

300 - Peter Lonard (AUS) 74-74-74-78, Hiroyuki Fujita (JPN) 77-70-76-77

301 - Bubba Watson (USA) 75-73-77-76

303 - Richard Green (AUS) 71-77-79-76

304 - Rocco Mediate (USA) 73-74-72-85

306 - Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 76-72-81-77

- Reuters