Phil Mickelson is struggling. He starts the year strong with a couple of wins, does just OK in the year's first three majors, and has only the PGA Championship left to transform a solid season into something closer to superb.

Phil Mickelson

That is the San Diegan's 2008 campaign in a nutshell heading into the 90th PGA Championship, which begins tomorrow at Oakland Hills Country Club.

It also aptly describes 2005, and there was a lesson Mickelson and everybody else should have learned in a steamy week at the '05 PGA in Baltusrol. Recent form isn't always a predictor when it comes to excelling in major championships.

Especially for one of the game's most mercurial players.

In his five stroke-play tournament starts before Baltusrol, Mickelson had gotten progressively worse with each week, from a 14th in the Byron Nelson in mid-May to a 60th in the British Open in mid-July.

He had recovered some confidence the week before the PGA with a 10th in the modified Stableford points format of the now-defunct International, but few were predicting victory, especially with Tiger Woods having just seized the British Open at St. Andrews.

So it was rather stunning when Mickelson fired away with a 67-65 combo to start, and ended up capturing his first PGA and second major. All of the travails of the year were forgotten.

“I do feel the same way this year,” Mickelson said yesterday in recalling '05. “It's been an OK year, but winning the last major could turn it into something special.”

The oddsmakers like his chances. With Woods sidelined, Ladbrokes.com has tabbed Mickelson the favorite at 10-1, followed by British Open champion Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh at 20-1.

It has been another season of “Which Phil will show up?” Victories at Riviera and Colonial have extended to five Mickelson's streak of seasons with at least two victories, and only Woods can claim more extended success. Mickelson is No. 2 in the world and No. 3 on the FedEx Cup points list.

Not shabby at all.

Yet until last week, when he bobbled with the lead down the stretch on Sunday and finished fourth in the Bridgestone Invitational, Mickelson hadn't been close to winning form in more than two months. He'd played just three times after Colonial, and placed no better than 18th. There was the no-driver debacle in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

But while many were pointing to Bridgestone's Sunday as more evidence of Mickelson's fragility, he seemed to genuinely take positives from it. Yes, he bogeyed three of the last four holes by hitting into bunkers, but he also was a combined couple of inches from draining birdie putts on the back nine that would have cured the other ills.

“I would have loved to have won last week, there's no arguing that point,” Mickelson said. “But I really need to be there like I was . . . to have an opportunity where every putt counted, to put myself in a pressure situation heading into this event. I needed to feel the pressure.”

Renowned for his short game, Mickelson believes it's his putting that has hurt him for some time. He was fifth on the tour in putting average in 2006; now he ranks 48th.

The putter will be critical on the severely sloped and rolling greens of Oakland Hills.

“I had a good week with the short game, but it wasn't great,” Mickelson said. “That's where I'm spending most of my (practice time).”

Mickelson again got a case of the “lefts” off the tee on Bridgestone's back nine. The shot has seemingly been his curse on the 72nd hole, with troubles on that side in losses at Winged Foot in '06, Riviera in '07 and Bridgestone last week.

But the lefty insists that if he misses the fairway, that's where he wants to be. Left.

“I'm trying to take half the trouble out of play,” Mickelson explained. “I want to set up down the right edge of the fairway and hit a cut. If I miss it left, it doesn't bother me. What bothers me is if I hook it.”

A glass-half-full outlook, to be sure, but Mickelson is the king of turning something into nothing, and nothing into something.

Tod Leonard: (619) 293-1858; tod.leonard@uniontrib.com