Mickelson grateful to return and compete this weekend

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Phil Mickelson returns to competition this weekend at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.

AKRON, Ohio -- He's in a much better place.

Most of the uncertainty is gone. The waiting, thankfully, is over. So Phil Mickelson can begin to concentrate on golf again now that his wife Amy has begun treatment for breast cancer and the outlook is much more positive than in the dark days after her diagnosis.

"This is going to be a long road, and it's not something that you ever really get over with," Mickelson said Wednesday. "It never really leaves you. You deal with it the rest of your life. But for today I'm in a much better place than I was six weeks ago."

Mickelson hasn't played competitively since finishing second at the U.S. Open in June. During that time, both Amy and Mickelson's mother Mary, who was diagnosed several weeks after his wife, have undergone surgery at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He declined to discuss further specifics of the treatment.

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"It's a personal issue with them, and so I want to respect their wishes and not go into too much detail," Mickelson said. "But I feel like we've been fortunate."

Fortunate enough that he can now look forward to playing golf again -- although he isn't looking beyond the next three events. First up is this week's World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, then the PGA Championship and The Barclays.

Things have gone so well that Mickelson has been able to practice a little over the last few weeks. He even made a scouting trip to Hazeltine National, which hosts the PGA Championship next week, and played it from the tips, all 7,700 yards of it. He's not sure how he'll play but says he's optimistic.

"What do I expect? I expect to play well. I mean, I expect to play like I always have," Mickelson said. "I think that mental rehearsal is every bit as important as physical rehearsal. When I had my nurse gown on, I would mentally rehearse shots and stuff to just kind of keep myself sharp, even though I wasn't touching a club.

"So I think when I came back and was finally able to swing a club, I was able to play fairly decently."

Two months ago, though, Mickelson didn't expect to be playing any golf in August. He didn't know what the future would hold for his wife or his mother, and the uncertainty was agonizing for them all.

"But I think two things have been very helpful," Mickelson said. "I'm a big believer in prayer, and I think that was a big help, and I'm a big believer in science, and to have a center that specifically focuses on cancer, to have centers like that throughout this country is a huge asset for so many of us because so many of us get afflicted with this.

"So as we did research and saw that there was a lot of treatment and had many of our questions answered, it got easier and easier. Although it'll never be easy, as great a situation as you might have dealing with cancer, it's a lifelong disease."

Mickelson and his wife have been overwhelmed by the support, which included a "Pink Out" at the Crowne Plaza Invitational presented by Colonial. But he was quick to point out that there are others on TOUR who need positive thoughts and prayers as well.

People like Chris Smith, whose wife was killed and their two children injured in a fiery automobile accident in June. Earlier that month, Ken Green's long-time girlfriend and brother were killed in another crash and Green's lower right leg had to amputated.

"We had some incredible tragedies," Mickelson said. "I think first and foremost the most heart wrenching tragedy was with Chris Smith losing his wife Beth. It's a terrible feeling, a helpless feeling, not being able to do anything and see them go through that.

"Meanwhile we were going through our own stuff, but to see something as tragic as that, it just pulls at you, and we want to do what we can to help the Smith family. And then to see what Ken Green went through with his accident and his amputation.

"I don't know what's been going on TOUR. Jonathan Byrd's father just died of brain cancer. It's just been a wacky couple of months for the families on the PGA TOUR, and we feel for them, as well."

Mickelson is getting on with life, though, as he knows Byrd has and Smith and Green will do. This extended break has energized him, and he's excited to get back to competition.

"I didn't realize how much I loved playing the game of golf," Mickelson said. "It's made me re look at some of my longer term expectations as far as if I would cut back schedule, win, at what age, all that stuff.

"It just makes me realize how much I really enjoy what I do, how much I love playing the game of golf, how much I love competing on the PGA TOUR, and how I don't ever want to take that for granted."