Phil Mickelson finishes T-21 in first post-surgeries start at CareerBuilder Challenge

Phil Mickelson didn’t win the CareerBuilder Challenge in his first year playing as the tournament ambassador, but he certainly acquitted himself well in his first PGA Tour start since a pair of sports-hernia surgeries.

Mickelson closed on Sunday at PGA West’s TPC Stadium Course with a 2-under 70 to finish in a tie for 21st place, finishing nine back of eventual winner Hudson Swafford. Seeing as though Mickelson said he decided to give it a go this week to figure out where his game is, the five-time major winner was pleased with the result.

“I’m much further along than I thought I would be,” said Mickelson. “I knew that my game wasn’t sharp. I didn’t feel like I was ready to win, per se, but now I feel like my game’s come a long ways in the last week. I feel like a couple more good practice days, working on the areas where I was deficient, should lead to a good work week next week.”

Phil Mickelson had a good week in return from off-season surgery. (Getty Images)

Mickelson has a single over-par round on the week, a Saturday 73 that took him out of any contention to win for the first time on the PGA Tour since the 2013 British Open. The short game looked good. Iron play was pretty sharp. However, Mickelson is dialing in a new Callaway Golf driver while trying to make some adjustments to his swing with the club.

“I had to change my footwork and then, conversely, I’ve been altering the driver to accommodate my inefficiency in my swing,” Mickelson said. “And now that my swing is getting better with the driver, I’ve got to change the driver makeup and setup. So that’s developing a whole other set of things to get used to.”

That’ll take some time, of course, and the process will continue next week near San Diego at the Farmers Insurance Open, the next stop in a run-up with an eye toward a fourth Masters title in April.

“As the week wore on I hit more and more good shots and fewer really bad shots. And that was a good sign,” he said. “So I’m looking forward to the next three, four tournaments.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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