Phil Mickelson deserves better than a silent US Open exit

Mickelson deserved a hero’s sendoff even if he never got hoist that US Open trophy over his head.

Was that it? Is that the last time we’ll see Phil Mickelson in a US Open? Is our last image of the left-hander in his national championship slumping off the ninth green in silence after three-putting from inside 2 feet for bogey on his last hole at Winged Foot?

If this was his 29th and final appearance in his national championship, Phil the Thrill deserved better than this. He deserved a crowd appreciating every errant drive the way fans at Hoylake got to lift the spirits of Seve Ballesteros. He deserved his prodigious New York fan club flanking all sides of the last hole to stand and cheer his final walk the way the crowds did for Arnold Palmer at Oakmont and Jack Nicklaus at Pebble Beach, St Andrews, Valhalla and Augusta.