George Kimball/America At Large: The title is now, by consensus and by acclamation, his alone: Best Player Never To Have Won A Major. "I don't mind," said Phil Mickelson.

"As a matter of fact, I feel kind of honoured when people say that. But make no mistake about it, it's a club I'd like to resign from at the soonest possible moment."

Officials at St Andrews' Old Course have become accustomed to visiting Americans arriving at the first tee, hoping to bluster their way onto the course in the absence of a tee time, but when Lefty showed up with his fourball Monday afternoon, an accommodation was made. Mickelson and his gang were slotted in just before our 3:40 game, meaning we followed the life-and-death match between Lefty and his caddie Jim (Bones) Mackay (with a couple of their higher-handicap buddies filling in).

After 16 holes the servant was on the verge of bludgeoning the master, but Bones sent an errant drive into the Old Course hotel off the 17th tee, Mickelson birdied the last, and the match finished level.

At the same time, it speaks volumes about Mickelson's renewed dedication that he had driven the two-and-a-half hours from Muirfield to St Andrews after 54 holes' worth of practice time on the former over the previous two days.

Although he has come close in the other three majors, Mickelson's British Open record has been spotty at best. In nine attempts he has missed two cuts, and finished 11th in his only Top 20 performance.

A couple of years ago, recognising that his game was ill-suited to links play, he began to work on it in earnest on both sides of the Atlantic. Titleist, his club sponsor, even built a links-style hole at its California testing facility so he could practise run-up shots.

Last year he prepared for the Open at Lytham with a stop-over in Ireland, and was made an honorary member at Lahinch. This year he arrived early in Scotland, and has been touring the East Lothian links when he hasn't been playing Muirfield and St Andrews. "The biggest motivating factor is I want to win events, and the most elite events are the four majors. Winning the British Open would give me the greatest satisfaction, given the degree of alteration I've had to go through to accommodate playing here," said Mickelson on the eve of the 131st Open Championship.

"It was about a year and a half ago that I realised my style of play was not going to be conducive to doing well in this event, and I wanted to change that, because not only did I want to compete here, I wanted to compete more regularly. Every time I'd come (to Scotland) I felt I had a chance to win, but as the wind would pick up and the greens would dry out and firm up, I found I didn't have the control over the ball I needed. I was putting the ball in horrendous spots, and having a tough time scoring.

"My golf swing had to take on a number of changes," he explained. "My ball flight had to take on a number of changes. My visualisation of shots had to change to accommodate the ball landing 30 yards short of the pin, being able to turn the ball around the bunkers, as opposed to just flying over them.

"I'm ready to go. I'm just coming here with a variety of shots I didn't have before."

Mickelson turned professional just a month before the Open was last played at Muirfield in 1992. He flew to Scotland and attempted to qualify at North Berwick that year, but came up short. So he turned around and flew home again.

By his own estimate, Lefty is playing the best golf of his career.

In the year's two earlier majors, he finished outright third at the Masters, and was runner-up to Tiger Woods in last month's US Open at Bethpage. A week later (with Woods taking the week off), he won the Canon Greater Hartford Open. He has already pocketed nearly $4 million this year alone.

"I've been fortunate, on and off the course, to put myself and my family in a position where we don't have to worry about finances," said Mickelson. "All I care about is winning golf tournaments."

Whether he is destined to go down in golf history as one of the game's great unfulfilled talents or merely as a very good player whose career happened to coincide with Tiger Woods' remains unlearned, but we do know this much: Phil Mickelson isn't complaining.

"It's a great opportunity and a great challenge to play against a man who's arguably the best player of all time," said Mickelson. "What a great way for me to try to compete, try to get better, and bring out my best golf.

"Had Tiger not been in the field, and not been doing as well as he had and not challenged me to get better, I don't think I would have played to the same level for the past year or two, so it's been a huge benefit. The fact is, he's driven television ratings, driven the purses up, driven the fan interest and the spectator interest."

Given all of that, someone asked Mickelson yesterday whether his "dream" would be coming down the stretch neck-and-neck with Woods on Sunday and pulling ahead to win.

"Dream?" asked Mickelson. "It's something I work for, yes. It's a motivating factor for me to try to get better, to make that a reality. But "dream?" I don't lie in bed thinking about it, if that's what you mean."