For the first time in 29 years, Phil Mickelson won’t be on the tee sheet for the Farmers Insurance Open, the annual PGA Tour event hosted just 12 miles from his Rancho Sante Fe home.
Mickelson made the official announcement on Twitter following a second-round 4-under par 68 at The Desert Classic in La Quinta, California, which was enough to secure the 36-hole lead.
“I want to share my updated tour schedule: this week I will be playing here in the desert, Phoenix, Pebble Beach, and then defending my title in Mexico,” he wrote. “My streak of 28-straight Farmers Insurance Opens will end next week. I will try to make it up to the great community of SD!”
I want to share my updated tour schedule: this week I will be playing here in the desert, Phoenix, Pebble Beach, and then defending my title in Mexico. My streak of 28-straight Farmers Insurance Opens will end next week. I will try to make it up to the great community of SD!
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) January 19, 2019
Mickelson has said previously that given his age, he wants to play a schedule that fits his game and not put too much stress on his body. Although Torrey Pines is a place that Mickelson has won twice over the years, it was one that he admitted never really fit his eye.
“Quite honestly I just wasn’t sure I would be ready for a golf course that long and hard,” Mickelson said on Thursday at The Desert Classic. “And so I’ve been kind of waiting to see how my game felt the first couple of days. That’s one of the hardest courses we play, it’s 7,600 yards, fairways are tight, there’s a lot of rough and unless I’m playing my absolute best, that’s not really a great place for me.”
Mickelson gave another reason for skipping the event following his round on Friday — the truncated schedule is making picking and choosing events more difficult on the best players in the world.
“It’s a tough thing for me because I love that tournament and I love the community and to play six in a row is just, it’s not going to happen,” he said before making his announcement on social media. “So I don’t know which ones I’m going to miss and we’re still trying to figure it out. I should know shortly, I just don’t know right now.”
Mickelson will be in action in two weeks at the Waste Management Phoenix Open as well as the following week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He will then have a week off (Genesis Open) before playing in the first World Golf Championship event of 2019, the WGC-Mexico Championship, where he ended a nearly-five-year winless drought.
