Watch Jun 16, 2011 US Open Championship Live Online

A chance to keep the ball in play and take a bit of the normal, um, excitement that comes with his sometimes wild driver.

Pop three wedges in to bag. Plot every possibility -- we’re talking to the Nth degree -- in practice rounds.

As NBC’s Dan Hicks said Wednesday, “With Tiger out, it’s the Phil Mickelson show coming in.”

“I played the 16th hole six over par, and it ended up costing me the tournament,’’ Mickelson said. “I learned a lot about how to play a U.S. Open that week because a lot of times par 5s, which I normally think of as a birdie hole, in the U.S. Open a lot of times it's the toughest par.

“There have been some Opens where … I'm trying to think of an example, where the par 5 has been the highest … some of the highest scoring averages on the golf course. It's changed my thought process about being overly aggressive in the par 5s.”

Over the years, he’s learned to control his misses and salvage pars. He’s learned to stop putting pressure on himself to hit every fairway -- it just isn’t going to happen -- and play perfect golf.

And those five runner-up finishes? “I might look at it the same way in that I was 0 for 40 something winning a major and I really wanted to win and I'm 0 for 20 something in U.S. Opens,’’ Mickelson said. “The way I see it is when I finally did break through and won my first major, my thought process was not to worry about winning, not to worry about the result, but to enjoy the entire tournament, enjoy the process, enjoy the challenge of trying to win.

I'm going to have fun this week playing and trying to compete in our national championship. … I've been playing some of my better golf. And I also believe that the course setup and the golf course itself provides a great opportunity for me to showcase the way I've been playing. But I can't worry about the result. Each shot is going to be very challenging and each hole will be a difficult par and so forth. And rather than worrying about the result after 72 holes, I'm trying to think about the process of playing the type of golf I want to play around this course.

I don't want to put any time pressure on my ability or belief in my ability to win.’’

“I've always felt as though Tiger helped bring out … has helped bring out some of my best golf over the years,’’ Mickelson said. Watch Jun 16, 2011 US Open Championship Live Online