DORAL, Fla. — Much like Tiger Woods when he was dominating golf, Phil Mickelson’s greatest asset is his mind — or more specifically, his attitude.
Woods, en route to his 14 major championships, broke opponents down with the relentless strength and unflappability of his mind.
Mickelson’s unwavering, eternal optimism is the 15th club in his bag. There never has been a prominent player in golf with more resilience than Mickelson, who wouldn’t have won the five majors he owns without it.
This figures to serve him well as he navigates through the back nine of his PGA Tour career.
It already is paying dividends this year as Mickelson has carefully been carving out a rebirth.
The most recent example was Thursday’s opening round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral, where he carded a 5-under-par 67 to stand one shot off the lead held by Scott Piercy and Marcus Fraser entering Friday’s second round.
Mickelson did this without having played a single practice hole on the Blue Monster this week. He flew home to California on Monday after playing the Honda Classic and the Seminole Pro-Member to be with his family and didn’t arrive at Doral until after dark on Wednesday.
Undaunted, Mickelson was two shots better than world No. 1 Jordan Spieth, four better than Rory McIlroy, five better than Jason Day and three better than Rickie Fowler.
Those are the top young players in the game perceived to be passing Mickelson by.
“I know the level they’ve been playing at, because I played at that level and higher for years,’’ Mickelson told The Post after his round. “And when I wasn’t doing that it was very frustrating. I’m very motivated. I’m excited about the way I’m playing. I’m very excited about being in contention again.’’
Mickelson, who has 42 career victories, has not won a tournament since his career-defining British Open triumph in 2013 at Muirfield. That was 54 starts and 31 months ago. The void weighs on the competitive soul, who craves winning.
Because he turns 46 in June and because the younger generation — Spieth, McIlroy, Day, Fowler, et al — are taking over the game, it’s understandable for people to wonder if Mickelson will win again.
But if you have paid attention this season, you have seen he is playing about as well as anyone in the game, despite not yet winning.
He has two top-three finishes after having only three such results in the previous two seasons combined. He’s ranked first on the PGA Tour in scoring average at 69.033.
He has been raving about his revamped swing under the eyes of new swing coach Andrew Getson, who replaced Butch Harmon after Harmon had worked with Mickelson for eight successful years. Getson, Mickelson said, has helped him get his swing, which had become too steep, back on plane.
Mickelson always has been a tinkerer with his game and is in constant need of new stimuli to keep things fresh. Getson is a new, fresh voice for Mickelson to listen to.
“I wasn’t stale. I was frustrated,’’ Mickelson said. “For 20 years I was hitting these shots and then, the last couple of years, I was not hitting them anymore. Now that things are coming back, it’s exciting.’’
His excitement and enthusiasm were tested last month at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am when he rimmed out a 5-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole that would have gotten him into a playoff. He was gutted about it, but only temporarily.
“I’m so close to going off,’’ Mickelson said the day after the Pebble disappointment. “It’s getting better every week.’’
He had an off week with the putter at the Honda Classic last week, but took little time to bounce back Thursday at Doral without a practice round.
Mickelson burns to win again. The only gap in his career résumé is a victory in the U.S. Open, the only major championship he has not yet won.
A reporter asked Mickelson on Thursday about being a “40-something guy playing against these 20-somethings.’’
“The ball, the scorecard, they don’t know the difference in age,’’ Mickelson said with a smile. “It’s a fun challenge for me to get back to competing at the highest level.’’
And so he is.
