Lefty's poignant memories of Pinehurst

America at Large: The statue has been there since 2001, but Phil Mickelson had never seen it until he visited Pinehurst for a weekend's practice two weeks ago. One leg kicking behind him, the fist-pumping image of the late Payne Stewart stands behind the 18th green, but a few steps removed from the spot where his 15-foot putt found the hole to win the 1999 US Open.

There were 30,000 eyewitnesses to this dramatic event, but none of them had a better view than Mickelson. And while Stewart did indeed throw a celebratory punch into the air, a split second later he was reaching out to grasp Mickelson's face with both hands in consolation.

There would be other US Opens, Stewart reminded the rival with whom he had gone toe-to-toe all afternoon, "but you're going to be a father", and that was more important still.

It was the second US Open Championship for Stewart, the last of 11 tournament wins in an all-too-brief career. Four months later he would be dead, scattered across a forlorn South Dakota field. And in the intervening half-dozen years Mickelson has become a father three times over, shedding in the process his dubious designation as the world's best golfer never to have won a major.

The common supposition is that Stewart broke Mickelson's heart with that putt at Pinehurst, robbing the man who'd led since the opening round of the best chance he'd ever had to end his major jinx, but on the eve of the 105th US Open Mickelson acknowledged that he almost certainly would have lost either way.

Moments before Stewart dropped his putt, Mickelson had missed, by an inch, with a 22-foot effort, and at that moment he knew it was all over.

Had Stewart's ball not found the hole, the USGA would have ordered the issue settled with an 18-hole play-off the next day, but only one of the participants would have reported for Monday duty.

"I would have left," confirmed Mickelson, who'd had a private jet fuelled and sitting on the tarmac, ready to take off at a moment's notice if word had come that his wife, Amy, had gone into labour.

Amy's water broke on Monday morning, just about the time the two would have been scheduled to tee-off. Daughter Amanda was born later in the day.

"I think she definitely would have called," said Mickelson yesterday, leaving no doubt that he'd have dropped his driver and high-tailed it for the plane the second his beeper went off, play-off be damned.

Close friends of Stewart maintain to this day that winning by forfeit under those circumstances would have been so unpalatable to his nature that he wouldn't have showed up for the one-man play-off.

That may well be the case, but it's hard to imagine the USGA bending to sentiment like that. Had neither Stewart nor Mickelson turned up on Monday, we're guessing the bluejackets would have disqualified them both and handed the trophy to the third-place finisher, Tiger Woods.

Although 1999 was the first time the US Open had been played at Pinehurst, the dramatic events surrounding that final weekend have left some indelible memories, particularly with the only surviving member of that tournament's final-round pairing.

"I was travelling across the country, leaving my wife who's about to deliver, and I was only going to do it for the biggest of events," he recalled two days ago. "And only going to do it if I was going to win. I didn't want to come here and finish 30th and not accomplish anything.

"I was very determined to win, and I was actually very surprised that I didn't," said Mickelson. "Obviously, Payne played tremendous, but mentally I was so focused. I really thought I was going to win this tournament - and I was shocked that I didn't."

By now the floodgates had opened and the memories came tumbling out.

"Obviously, Payne talking about fatherhood after he'd just won was very special, but so was being able to play that final round with him," said Mickelson. "The putt he made on No 16 was an amazing putt, and some of the shots he hit that day, the way we went back and forth and the lead kept changing. A lot of cool things took place in that final round to make it exciting - and he did it in a very classy way."

Including that '99 tournament, Mickelson has been the runner-up in three of the last six US Opens.

When Mickelson played here six years ago, the impending birth kept him at his wife's side until the night before the tournament began. He took to Pinehurst without having played a practice round, and relied heavily on the work of his advance scout, caddie Jim (Bones) Mackay, for his understanding of the subtleties of Donald Ross's venerable masterpiece.

This week he will be on more familiar ground. Although he played the Booz Allen last week, he had visited Pinehurst over the previous weekend and played practice rounds on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This week he flew straight from Washington to Carolina to get in three more pre-tournament rounds.

A year later, the world's best golfers are still complaining about the conditions which obtained in last year's US Open at Shinnecock Hills, but Mickelson predicts that "without rain - and it doesn't look like we're going to get any - we have the potential for 18 holes (at Pinehurst) that could be like No 7 at Shinnecock.

"I'm a little biased, because I would love to see that happen," said Lefty.

"It's always been my contention that if nobody can hit a green, I've got a pretty good chance."