SteveElling

SAN DIEGO -- As ever, he had some tricks up his sleeve.

Phil Mickelson sauntered onto the first tee in the first round of the U.S. Open with a lot less clutter sticking out of the top of his bag.

Ditching your driver will do that, huh?

The guy who once used two drivers to win the Masters used zero in the first round of the Open, despite playing what measures on paper as the longest course in major-championship history.

He's sticking with the game plan, too, barring wet conditions, which are very unlikely.

"You noticed that I didn't have a driver today, huh?" he said playfully. "My game plan was that I only want to hit it a certain distance, I don't really want to hit it past 300 yards on most of the par-4s because it starts running into the rough. And I felt like with the fairways being firm like they were today all I needed was 3-wood on the holes.

"Now if it rains or gets softer, I'll certainly pull driver out. But my game plan for months was, if it's firm fairways like I expected, 3-wood was all I needed. And I was able to take advantage of the two par-5s and get home no problem and that's all that, that's the most important thing."

Yet at times, the decision clearly seemed questionable. He drove into the rough on the 504-yard 12th hole, which played into a breeze, then tried to muscle a hybrid onto the green from the rough and moved the ball 10 feet. Had he hit driver off the tee on the same line, his drive would have been in the fairway bunker and yielded a cleaner lie, 30 yards closer to the green.

After stumbling to a 3-over start thanks to sloppy 3-woods off the tee, he eventually fought back on the back nine to shoot an even-par 71.

"I had been hitting almost all the fairways with this 3-wood in practice rounds and so forth. So when I made some terrible swings and hit in the rough it kind of defeats the game plan because now I'm short and crooked.

"But when I started hitting fairways coming down the stretch I made birdies. So I expect to swing a little bit more confidently like I did the back nine as opposed to the start and I know this happens when I play and don't play the week before a major. I'm always a little rusty the front nine. And I'm glad that I was able to keep it in check and only shoot a few over and recover on the back."

Playing partner Tiger Woods didn't seem too shocked. Mickelson was uting a 3-wood with 11.5 degrees  of loft, only a few degrees softer than many drivers. Mickelson also carried a hybrid club and four wedges. 

"It's a strong 3-wood," Woods said. "It's kind of like the old brassie, you know? So even though it's not a driver, it's a strong 3-wood."

SAN DIEGO -- The sign, as a singular entity, is fairly daunting.
 
Planted on the back tee box at Torrey Pines, the wooden standard says the 18th hole measures 573 yards, a longish proposition in the moist sea air for guys with guts to go for the green, if not the glory.
 
Mike Davis has a secret.
 
That signpost is about as relevant as a 15th club left in the locker room. In fact, that tee might not be used at all.
 
In an attempt to give the 108th U.S. Open the slam-bang ending often produced at the Buick Invitational each January, Davis plans to move up the tee and let players gun for the green on the par-5 in two.
 
"I kind of like that next tee (box) up," said Davis, who handles the course setup for the host U.S. Golf Association. "If everybody ends up laying up on that hole, that's a disappointment."
 
That would shave approximately another 30 yards from the hole, meaning nearly every player in the field who plants a tee shot in the fairway is realistically in the go zone for reaching the green in two.
 
In Davis' best-case dream scenario, he'd like for a player to be standing on the tee on Sunday with a chance of making history with a winning birdie or eagle. Because, as even Davis was surprised to learn, it's basically never happened.
 
In a staggering statistic that underscores the difficulty of the Opens in the past, the last player to birdie the 18th hole on Sunday to win the Open by a single shot was famed amateur Bobby Jones at Scioto Country Club in 1926.
 
That was back before leaders were paired, so Jones quite likely didn’t understand the stakes when he birdied the hole. It was so long ago, it's almost irrelevant. 

Over the years, the Open has mostly been known for its final-hole trainwrecks, like the disasters on the 18th three years ago at Winged Foot by Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie.

The 18th is guarded by a pond fronting the green, and 4-inch rough in the surrounding area behind the putting surface, meaning a player could make anything from an eagle to a double-bogey or worse.

The scenario is set. Can somebody deliver the hero shot?