Dan O'Neill

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - Clearly, Tiger Woods will be favored at the U.S. Open, playing the same golf course where he won the same title in 2002. And just as clearly, he will not be the favorite at Bethpage Black.

That designation will fall overwhelmingly to Phil Mickelson, who is taking time out from worrying and wondering what the future holds for his wife and his family to compete in the 109th Open. Mickelson finished runner-up to Woods here seven summers ago. That won't happen again, at least not on an emotional level.

The Gotham galleries that slapped “Lefty” on the back in 2002 and adopted the California kid as their own will embrace him even more warmly this time. Friends don't shake, friends gotta hug. New York will wrap Big Apple arms around a wounded Mickelson, hold him tight and reassure him.

Mickelson was having an up-and-down season until four weeks ago, when “up” went out the window. His wife of 13 years, Amy Mickelson, was diagnosed with breast cancer, emotionally gutting news that brought an immediate halt to all things golf. The sports world knows Amy Mickelson well. It was introduced in 1999, when she was about to give birth to the couple's first child. In contention in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, Phil wore a beeper and insisted he would leave immediately upon learning his wife was in labor.

Although her contractions began on Sunday, Amy elected not to zap her husband as he tried to run down Payne Stewart on the back nine. Mickelson fell one stroke short, but made it home in time to be with Amy for the birth of their daughter.

Since that time, we have seen a lot of Amy Mickelson, when she was among those dancing on the green in a premature celebration at the 1999 Ryder Cup, when she nearly died during childbirth in 2003, when she walks the ropes and mingles so easily with the galleries, when she gives her heart to the numerous efforts the Phil and Amy Mickelson Foundation addresses.

Amy isn't just part of what the Mickelsons do. In many ways she's the best part.

“I think she's the most charismatic person I've ever met,” Mickelson said. “She touches people in a way that people don't get touched. It's just right to the heart. She has a way to have an impact on people, the way she looks you in the eye, the way she listens to what you have to say, and genuinely cares. She has a quality about her that not many people have.”

Since the initial discovery of the cancer, it has been determined Amy's condition is stable enough that surgery can be pushed back to early July. In the meantime, the Mickelsons have decided to restore some sense of normalcy to their lives, reboot the routine that otherwise will be compromised as Amy undergoes treatment over the next many months.

Of course, at this point “normalcy” rings as a relative term. “I've never been this emotional, where if I'm driving alone or what have you, I'll just start crying," Mickelson said. “We're scared, yeah. I think a lot of it is the unknown.”

In the midst of it all, Mickelson has returned to a world where he has no fear, where he often looks trouble straight in the eye and sticks out his chin. In the midst of it all, “Phil the Thrill” is leaning on golf.

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