Phil Mickelson essentially admits he's an idiot by finally using a driver in U.S. Open's third round

LA JOLLA, Calif. (June 14, 2008) - So there’s Phil Mickelson on the first tee at Torrey Pines South, pulling out driver. Two days too late.

It was obvious the driver would be back if you heard a downtrodden Mickelson talking about his incredibly lame fairways hit numbers (less than 50 percent for the No. 2 golfer in the world) after his 4-over second-round 75 crushed his self-proclaimed U.S. Open dream. Mickelson deserves a little credit - with the emphasis on little - for not stubbornly keeping a driver out of his bag for the third straight day to try and prove his brain-fart point.

Still, watching Mickelson absolutely crush driver on the par 4 fourth right down the middle, you couldn’t help but wonder what the heck he was thinking. Did he even run this 3-wood off-the-tee lunacy by anyone but Dave Pelz, his short-game wacko? Just the sound Mickelson’s driver made on the fourth tee caused the gallery to ooh.

How do you take that club out of your bag when you can make such sweet music?

Before this U.S. Open started, Mickelson talked about this being the best chance he had left in his career to win an Open. He’s probably right. Which means he has to live with blowing that best remaining chance because he outsmarted himself. Mickelson still isn’t playing great today, but plus one for the round at the turn is better than yesterday. Plus, after taking himself out of contention, he could already just be mentally shot for the week.

There are few guys on the PGA Tour more intelligent than Mickelson. And yet, he sometimes allows that to work against him.