With yet another chance to claim the No. 1 spot in the world, Lefty faltered again.
This time it was at the Scottish Open, where Phil imploded and missed the cut.
Playing in a tune-up tournament the week before the British Open at St. Andrews, Mickelson failed to make the weekend after missing the cutline by one stroke.
How he managed to miss the cut was almost inconceivable.
Midway through his second round (Phil started on the 10th hole), Mickelson recorded a disastrous 9 on the 18th hole, good for a quintuple-bogey. That is five strokes over par for just one hole. Ouch.
Lefty ended up taking three drives off of the tee as the first one found the drink and the second ended up in a hazard.
In the end, that one hole cost Phil another shot at the lofty ranking. His score of 74 on Friday combined with his 71 on Thursday were just one stroke too many.
Phil will have another chance next weekend to pass Tiger Woods, but with both players playing inconsistently right now, they might just keep playing bad enough for Tiger to hold on.
The chances keep coming for Lefty and he fails every time. Most notably was his horrific putting display at the U.S. Open.
The former Sun Devil is one of the best golfers in the world, has won major titles and is one of the most popular players on tour.
But he can't seem to grab the No. 1 spot.
For two months now, Phil has had opportunities to overtake Tiger Woods as the best golfer in the world.
He's been unsuccessful so far. And eventually he's gonna run out of chances.
