Mickelson’s demise is ninefold

LA JOLLA -- A wave of respectful applause washed over Phil Mickelson as he reached the 18th green at Torrey Pines at the end of a long and difficult day at the U.S. Open. It was more gentle than loud, the kind of clapping you sometimes hear at the end of a sad movie.

Mickelson knocked in a short putt for a birdie, tugged at the bill of his cap to acknowledge his fans, flashed a wan smile as he ducked into a tunnel under the grandstands, crossed a platform and then trudged along the back of the first tee toward the room in the cart barn where he signed his scorecard.

And that scorecard would show the number 76, much of it coming on one hole, the par-five 13th, where he had a nine.

If that sounds high, it is. It’s Mickelson’s worst score in the U.S. Open on a single hole ever -- and he has played 1,224 of them.

But Mickelson said it’s actually not the first time he has had that score on this hole at Torrey Pines.

“Oh, no, I’ve had a nine on 13. . . . I was 8 years old.”

It took six years for the U.S. Open to come to Torrey Pines, after the USGA announced its decision in 2002, and only about 10 minutes for Mickelson to play himself out of it.

His quadruple bogey on the 539-yard 13th hole in Saturday’s third round was majestic in its scope, spanning the gamut of the negative, all the way from pain to misery.

Three times Mickelson hit a wedge shot onto the green and three times he was forced to watch the ball spin back off, twice rolling back to the very spot he was standing.

It almost seemed as if he were playing a game of invisible fetch with his golf ball.

The look on Mickelson’s face said it all. Shock, disbelief, resignation.

And the thoughts he must have been processing. What am I doing? Where can I find a square ball? What time’s dinner?

He had plenty of time to turn over in his mind the notion that the U.S. Open in his hometown, basically in his backyard, on what amounts to his home course, in front of his most faithful fans, had come to a jarring, screeching, door-slamming halt.

That’s not the way it was supposed to turn out. Nine over par after three rounds isn’t close to the kind of score Mickelson or anyone else expected.

The fact is that 13th is a birdie hole, so you can draw the conclusion that Mickelson lost five shots there.

Even though Mickelson tried to crack a few jokes and even smile about his predicament afterward, his pain was obvious.

So much was expected of Mickelson, three times a runner-up in the U.S. Open, and now enjoying the opportunity of playing on a course where he is basically on a first-name basis with every blade of grass.

To call it disappointing is an understatement, so it’s really hard to say which Phil had the worse week, Mickelson or Jackson.

From Big Brown to the Lakers to Mickelson, expectations have been in a shambles for a while.

No other player who made the cut has hit fewer fairways than Mickelson, who attracted his share of criticism for his decision to stow his driver the first two rounds, even Friday, when he carried not four, but five wedges.

When Mickelson pulled out his driver on the first tee Saturday, he got his loudest cheers of the day.

Mickelson also hit his driver at the fateful 13th but felt well enough to make light of the move in the context of how that hole spun around, snarled and bit him.

“Hitting driver just threw me off,” he said.

His first wedge, an L wedge, was from the fringe, about 80 yards from the pin. After that, Mickelson hit his 64-degree wedge.

For his fourth shot.

For his fifth shot.

For his sixth shot.

He missed about a 15-footer from above the hole on his seventh shot, missed a five-footer coming back on his eighth shot and finally tapped in the ball on his ninth.

Mickelson said he wasn’t thinking pleasant thoughts at the time but managed to put them into words after he had signed his scorecard.

“Obviously a bummer,” he said.

More often than not, it’s a humbling experience, this golf business. And besides, without a dose of exasperating heartbreak from time to time, no one would know how high to fly from success.

Mickelson is uncommonly capable of producing samplings from both sides of the emotional scale. The fact that he plumbed one Saturday, and on such a grand stage at the U.S. Open, let’s just call it flair, not failure, and leave it at that.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com