Simon Lewis, Bethpage
You've just gotta love Phil Mickelson don't'cha?
Well, at least if you're a New York golf fan. The United States Golf Association, organisers of the US Open provides its ticket holders with a list of items it is not permissable to bring onto the Black course at Bethpage State Park.
Apparently the only thing that the 42,500 paying customers are allowed to bring each day is the love.
It was the same in 2002 when, still searching for that elusive first major victory, the extraordinarily talented left hander wowed Bethpage during the so-called 'People's Open' with his daring shot-making, his sublime short game and his brilliant improvisation.
Only to come up three shots short to the automaton that is Tiger Woods.
Seven years on and Mickelson is a three-time major winner having won two Masters and US PGA title over the water in New Jersey at Baltusrol.
The US Open is the title he craves most now. Bethpage in 2002 was one of four runner-up finishes in his national championship and what better place to break the hoodoo than at Bethpage Black in front of his adoring fans.
If anything, in the wake of Lefty's wife Amy being diagnosed with breast cancer, the New York galleries love Mickelson even more now and he is only too ready to embrace and reciprocate.
Whether it is the goofy smile or the aww-shucks grin, the thumbs up or the fist bumps between holes, Philly knows how to work a crowd and they roar him on at every turn.
Phil walks, they cheer. Phil arrives at a green, they rise from the bleachers as if he were a conquering Caesar returning home through the streets of Rome.
And Phil finds the rough again off the tee? Well, aww shucks, why don't we just cheer him anyway.
Cos' you've just gotta love Phil Mickelson don't'cha?
