LA QUINTA, Calif. -- Seldom does one round of golf encapsulate the career of a PGA Tour player, but Phil Mickelson's first 18 holes at the Humana Challenge on Thursday at the La Quinta Country Club highlighted all the strengths and weaknesses of the four-time major champion's 20-year career.
With a 2-over-par 74, Mickelson finished the first day of the tournament near dead last in the field. His scorecard was vintage Phil -- a mix of the bold, beautiful and ugly.
After making pars on his first five holes, he eagled the par-5 6th hole. Then he had a three-putt on the next hole, but closed his outward nine with two birdies for a 3-under 33.
At the par-4 10th, he hit his tee shot out of bounds left, which led to a double-bogey. Then he birdied the par-5 11th.
So now you're riding the wave of Mickelson's rollercoaster and not sure how it's going to end for the 41-year-old San Diego native, who is playing his first event of the year.
In the fairway at the par-5 13th hole, Bill Clinton made a cameo. Mickelson, David Toms and the 42nd President exchanged pleasantries and talked dieting for a few minutes. But before the president was whisked away in a golf cart by the Secret Service, time almost stopped for the fans and the players.
In what other sport could the president or anybody legally stop the action in the middle of play? It wasn't a raucous scene like you might expect for a rock star like Clinton, but rather a quiet appreciation for a former president who had simply crossed the ropes at a PGA Tour event.
"Sometimes you can get distracted, but I thought my thought process was pretty good," said Toms after a bogey-free 9-under 63, which put him in a tie for the lead with Camilo Villegas, who shot his 63 on the Nicklaus Private course at PGA West. "I took my time on each shot that the president was around and made sure that I was ready. I don't know if it's extra pressure, but you do have to stay focused."
Later, Mickelson said the president's appearance didn't bother him, but on the 14th hole, he hit another tee shot out of bounds, leading to a triple bogey. He would limp home with three closing pars for a 5-over 41 on the inward half.
"The round wasn't indicative of how I know I was playing," Mickelson said. "I've been playing really well heading in. I played well the front nine, made some good birdies.
"And then the back nine those couple out of bounds, one was a matter of two feet and a couple of inches on the other and those could have been a big difference."
That fast, free-flowing driver swing that often rushes way past parallel was on display Thursday. After the round, Mickelson complained of not being able to turn the ball over back into a slice wind on those two drives he hit out of bounds.
"I've been working with our new [Callaway] Razr Fit driver and I feel like it's been really good," Mickelson said. "But I didn't want to start the year with any changes, because I have been hitting it well."
Mickelson's putter, an Odyssey blade putter, ran hot and cold for most of his round, but he looked comfortable over most of his putts. After dabbling with a long putter late last year, he is confidently back with a flat stick similar to the one he'd used as a child.
"The big difference for me is that for the last couple of years I've been trying to work on mechanics and fundamentals to get the ball started on line," Mickelson said. "And I feel like I'm past that. Now all I'm worried about is getting the speed to match up with the line I've chose and so that's a whole different thought process."
In the days leading up to the start of the tournament, Mickelson had been working on his putting at the nearby ultra-exclusive Madison Club with Dave Stockton Sr.
His mental coach, Julie Elion, was also there with him working on his confidence. At La Quinta C.C., she was there with him on the practice putting green before the round and a quiet presence for him on the golf course.
"Phil is in a good place," Elion said. "We've done some good work over the off season."
Though most of the gallery was there for Mickelson, Toms was the best player in the group on Thursday. He made nine pretty routine birdies. At times it looked like he and Mickelson were playing different golf courses. The left-hander's tee shots soared three or four stories higher than Toms' best drives, but the former LSU star played the part of the veteran plodder with a magic putter.
"It was a really solid day for me," Toms said. "I really drove the ball well, so that set up everything.
"There are weeks where I'm kind of behind the eight ball, because I don't have the power and the distance of some of the other players. But other places I have an advantage because I can keep it straight. I just have to take advantage on the courses that are suited for my game."
Toms said that despite Mickelson's bad ending to his first round, he still sees the fire in Phil's eyes to compete.
"After talking to him, he's been working at it pretty well and other than a couple of bad tee shots, he played a good round of golf," Toms said. "He's been off for a while. It seems like he still has the fire to work and get better. I know for me a big part of it is the desire to want to be out here and do well and as long as Phil has that desire, he'll do fine."
Yet for the last several years, Mickelson has been focused almost entirely on winning majors. Getting up for the Humana Challenge must be a difficult task for a player with his lofty goals. Where most players in the Humana field see the tournament as a chance to have a breakthrough win, Mickelson sees it as an opportunity to fine-tune his game and to build momentum for the rest of the year.
A win would be great, but he no longer plays the game to win the Humana Challenge. After the round, he admitted that despite not having been to the tournament since 2007, he always loved coming here because of the perfect conditions to take stock of his game at the beginning of the year.
"I'm not going to let one round affect my outlook," Mickelson said. "It's a long tournament, a long week, a long month, a long year, and one round is just getting started."
Farrell Evans covers golf for ESPN and can be contacted at evans.espn@gmail.com.