Mickelson hitting top gear as he hunts sixth major

Phil Mickelson may have his heart set on the US Open title that will bring a career Grand Slam but he insists he is more than ready to land a sixth major victory anywhere, including at this week’s PGA Championship.

Mickelson, 43, is still riding high on the wave of emotion he experienced from lifting the Claret Jug last month, when a scintillating final-round 66 at Muirfield secured The Open Championship and the third leg of a clean sweep of all four majors.

Only the US Open, in which he has placed second a record six times, remains elusive but the Californian left-hander will tee off at Oak Hill in upstate New York tomorrow believing he is playing the best golf of his career and that while he has set no specific number of major wins as a target, repeating his 2005 PGA success and becoming the first to win back-to-back majors since Dubliner Pádraig Harrington did the same double in 2008 will do just fine.