Mickelson shows his patience as he gets off to a solid start in US Open

The very first green provided an early snapshot of how it would go for golf’s most famous left-handers as Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson watched their balls kick left off the devilishly undulating putting surface and skip merrily down the hill onto the 18th fairway.

It was there, standing on the wrong fairway, that their game plans diverged: Mickelson pulled out a lob wedge and, as he does, clipped his ball to six inches. Watson, also faced with a 50 yards pitch, opted for a 3-wood, bumped it into the bank . . . and then watched in dismay as the ball came back down to his feet. Bizarrely, he used the fairway wood for his second attempt, and barely made the green.

Whilst Mickelson signed for an opening par, Watson ran up a double-bogey six.

It was to prove to be a long, old day for Watson – who whinged about the unacceptability of waiting time and time again over shots as rounds took six hours to complete – whereas Mickelson, as he tends to do, simply got on with the job. No whinging, no moaning. When his day was done, Mickelson signed for a one-under-par 69; Watson for a 71.

That opening hole was to prove the difference between the two.

The hunt

Not surprisingly, when their day’s work was done, Mickelson was the chirpier.

Why not? Lefty – a six-time runner-up in this championship through his career, the only Major to so far have escaped his grasp – had put himself right into the thick of the hunt; even if back-to-back bogeys on his run-in took a little bit of the shine away.

In fact, Mickelson had to sink a 15-footer for bogey on the 14th to avoid a higher number. “You’re going to make bogeys, everyone’s going to make bogeys. It’s the doubles you try to avoid,” he said with some justification.

In his immediate post-round thoughts, Mickelson’s mind drifted back to the par save on the first. Six hours later, it was still fresh in his mind. “That’s the type of shot I feel will allow me to do well here,” said Mickelson. There were others too, but that pitch up the hole encapsulated Mickelson’s wizardry.

Mickelson, who had taken the words of the USGA’s Mike Davis to heart and undertaken an advance scouting mission to the course in the weeks running up to the championship, felt his due diligence had been rewarded. “You want to get off to a solid start, that’s a good start,” he said.

He added: “I thought the course played terrific, there was nothing hokey or crazy with any pin placements and how it played. I thought it was difficult. I think the biggest challenge is that the green speeds are different from green to green, that’s going to wreak havoc on our touch. And that’s the only think I could think of that’s not really a positive.”

In citing it as one of the “most difficult courses to walk” for players, Mickelson was also conscious of the difficulties faced by spectators in attempting to work their way around the course . . . . and cited his wife, Amy, as an example.

“It’s weird. Amy wants to come out and follow and she simply can’t. I’ll tell you, these golf spectators are probably the most dedicated when you think about it. Any other sport you buy a ticket, you sit in a seat and you watch 100 per cent of the action. In golf, you buy a ticket and you’ve got to walk miles in rough territory and you see but a fraction of the event.”

For Mickelson, the road to a possible career Grand Slam has started more smoothly than for the majority of those watching. The smile is in place.