TULSA, Okla. - Beneath a blistering sun and surrounded by cheers, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson climbed the steep hill together toward the clubhouse at Southern Hills.

They were separated by some 30 yards. And they could not have been farther apart.

This was Saturday at the PGA Championship, the final major of the year. Mickelson was on the 18th green, finishing another round over par that left him in the middle of the pack. Woods was making the turn on the adjacent ninth green, on his way to winning another major.

The scene spoke volumes of their divergent seasons.

Only three months earlier, Mickelson was walking up another hill toward the sprawling clubhouse of the TPC Sawgrass, his arm draped around the shoulder of swing coach Butch Harmon after a victory at The Players Championship.

It set the stage for what figured to be another run at the world's No. 1 player.

What followed was Lefty's lost summer.

“My performance in the majors has been disappointing,” Mickelson said as he sat in front of his locker, a tinge of gray hair starting to show around the ears. He is 37, still in his prime, but an age when lost years are tougher to get back.