US Tour/St Jude Championship:Phil Mickelson has no doubt he will be fit enough to tee off at next week's US Open despite withdrawing from the St Jude Championship in Memphis, which starts today, with a wrist injury.
Mickelson was forced to abandon his first round at the Memorial last week after 11 holes due to soreness in his left wrist. The 37-year-old had the injury examined on Friday in San Diego and after three days of therapy was keen to play in the PGA Tour event starting at TPC Southwind.
But after getting a second opinion in San Diego on Monday, the world number two decided against travelling to Memphis and will instead have a cortisone injection to relieve the pain and allow him to compete in the season's second major championship, which starts at Oakmont in Pennsylvania on June 14th.
"The timing isn't the best because I really wanted to play at Memphis," said Mickelson, who has won three major championships and 12 months ago should have won the US Open at Winged Foot having had a two-stroke lead with three holes to play, only to blow it and allow Geoff Ogilvy to snatch his maiden major title.
"But the good news is there is no break or fracture. I have inflammation that can be relieved and I'm looking forward to playing the US Open at 100 per cent physically."
Six players in the world's top 12 will competete at the St Jude Championship. Fourth-ranked Adam Scott, Vijay Singh (sixth), US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy (eighth), Padraig Harrington (10th), Retief Goosen (11th) and Sergio Garcia (12th) are playing this week.
A player worth monitoring is twice champion David Toms, who has finished no worse than tied for 10th in his last five appearances in Memphis. Winner in 2003 and 2004, he came close to completing a hat-trick of titles in 2005 before losing out to fellow American Justin Leonard by a shot.
Toms, whose most recent PGA Tour victory came at the 2006 Sony Open in Hawaii, has not been at his best this season, despite making 13 cuts out of 13.
The 40-year-old from Louisiana has finished no higher than tied for eighth, doing so at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship and at the Phoenix Open four weeks later.
Harrington has never played an Oakmont course which also staged the 1994 US Open, won by Ernie Els in a play-off with Colin Montgomerie and Loren Roberts. And he admits he will not be expecting an easy ride when he travels north from the St Jude Championship to Pennsylvania on June 10th.
"Oakmont seems like it's going to be a tough course," Harrington said. "From what I'm hearing I'm not too sure anyone can travel there with a lot of confidence. But I'm gaining in my own self-confidence. I'll play the week before, go up Sunday night, play two and a half practice rounds and see what happens."
In last year's US Open, Harrington needed to par the last three to win the title. Instead he bogeyed 16, 17 and 18 to miss out, but he will travel to Oakmont finally believing he is good enough to win a major after seventh place in this year's Masters. "I got a lot of confidence from the US Open last year," Harrington said. "Not only was I in contention, not only did I have three pars to win but I felt really good. And that's the main thing. I felt good in that position, I felt very comfortable.
"It was the same as the Masters this year so that says to me I could hit all the shots that were required at Augusta, I could hit all the shots that were required at Winged Foot.
"Other years I'd come away thinking I'd better go home and practice this, that or the other, I'm not good enough. I realise I can still get a lot better and I obviously still need to get the breaks to win a major but I'm capable of doing it.
"I don't really worry about the last hole in the third round. I played the last 15 holes in the final round in two under and missed some very makeable, short putts. I hit three good tee shots in the last three holes. All I needed to do is hit the last three greens to win the US Open. I was definitely capable of doing a good enough score.
"I didn't have a great week on the greens and walked away thinking 'I wonder if I'll ever play as well as that again'. I walked away thinking I played well within myself and that's very important for me. I'm a strange character. I tend to like to realise I can do things before I actually do them."
St Jude Championship
Venue:TPC at Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee.
Prize money:€4,446,610. Winner gets €800,390.
Course:7,244 yards, par 70. The Ron Pritchard-designed course, which opened in 1988, has hosted the St Jude since 1989. Bermudagrass replaced the bentgrass before last year's tournament to make the greens firmer and faster. A later tournament date means the rough will be thicker this year.
Defending champion:Jeff Maggert's winning score of nine-under-par 271 (including 99 putts) marked the first time since the event moved to TPC Southwind that the champion did not reach double digits under par.
On TV: Setanta Golf (8.30pm).
