Arnold Palmer was watching the final round of the U.S. Open on television, and it all looked so familiar. A simple par on the 18th hole was all he needed to capture a major championship that would put him in the record books. What followed was a comedy of errors that turned into a double bogey, a collapse that left his adoring gallery stunned.

That was Phil Mickelson at Winged Foot. And except for a few minor details and a change in scenery, it was Palmer at the 1961 Masters.

The King was in the middle of the 18th fairway with a 7-iron in his hand, poised to become the first back-to-back winner at Augusta National.A rare lapse in concentration led to a bad shot, compounded by Arnie being Arnie. Instead of playing it safe out of the bunker, he went at the flag and bladed his shot over the green, making double bogey.

“There were no bad breaks at all, just bad judgment,” Palmer said from his office in Latrobe, Pa.”George Lowe, an old buddy, was on the sidelines and motioned me over.When someone does that, particularly in a situation like that, I’m so concentrating on what I’m doing that I’d wave and keep going. But he put his hand out and I shook his hand. And from that moment, my mind was scrambled eggs.”

In a matter of minutes, Palmer was at the awards ceremony accepting the silver medal. The green jacket went to Gary Player.

“That was a tough one for me,” Palmer said. “I wanted a couple of things very badly, and one of them was to win two in a row. And it never happened. That rested hard, no question about it.”

That’s why watching Mickelson stirred so many sour memories.

Making par on the 18th hole at Winged Foot was no picnic, especially after Lefty’s tee shot caromed through the trees and off a corporate tent.Then came the 3-iron that he meant to carve around a tree, but hit smack into it. That was followed by a plugged lie in the bunker to a green tilting away from him. Just like that, Mickelson became known for five words he uttered in disbelief: “I am such an idiot.”

Palmer knows better than most what it’s like to blow a major. Along with the 1961 Masters, his most infamous collapse came at the 1966 U.S. Open at Olympic Club, where he blew a sevenshot lead while trying to set a scoring record, then lost to Billy Casper in a playoff.

And that’s why Palmer is hesitant to heap criticism on Mickelson.

“I think Phil was just being Phil,” Palmer said. “To tell someone what I think about what happened is difficult because I can’t tell watching television what’s really happening. I couldn’t see the lie or what the line was or what he had to shoot for. And if I was sitting there in the same spot, what would I have done? I probably would have done the same thing.”

The hangover didn’t last long. Palmer won his second British Open a few months later at Royal Birkdale, then added two more green jackets and a claret jug over the next three years.

He expects no less from Mickelson.

“I think Phil will come back very strong in his quest to continue winning and playing good golf,” Palmer said.

The road to recovery starts at Royal Liverpool, a links course that has not been used in 39 years. Mickelson was devastated after Winged Foot, not only for letting the U.S. Open slip away, but for losing an opportunity that history has shown does not come around very often. A victory would have been his third straight major, joining Tiger Woods as the only players to win three straight majors in the last 50 years, sending Lefty to Liverpool to complete the Grand Slam.

Now, he’s starting over.

Mickelson is so consumed with majors now that he gave a halfhearted effort at the Western Open, conceding that his mind was on the British Open. This is nothing new. Even at the Memorial,he was working on a new 64-degree wedge that would come in handy at Winged Foot. He usually plays the week before a major to get into a competitive frame of mind, but pulled out of the Scottish Open so he could spend more time at Hoylake.

As for that U.S. Open debacle?

“I’m not ever going to forget it, that’s obvious,” Mickelson said. “But what I’m not going to do is let it affect negatively my performance in upcoming majors.”

He knows the Palmer story well. They played a practice round at the 1991 Masters — Mickelson qualified by winning a PGA Tour event as an amateur — and got to the 18th hole when Palmer told him, “Right there. That’s where it happened,” recalling his double bogey in 1961 that cost him a small slice of history.

“Here it was 30 years later,” Mickelson said. “He still remembered it, and it still fired him up.”

The scrutiny of Mickelson figures to be at an all-time high at the British Open.

He started his professional career by going 0-for-42 in the majors, but that was more a matter of not playing well enough to win. Mickelson never so much as held a 54-hole lead in the majors until he won his first one at the 2004 Masters.

Winged Foot made him look bad, linking him more with Jean Van de Velde at Carnoustie than Palmer at Augusta National because the Frenchman’s follies were fresher memories.

Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson joined a parade of second-guessers, both speaking from the experience of losing majors, although nothing quite that spectacular. Along with his 18 majors, Nicklaus was a runner-up a record 19 times, and said what he learned was “you don’t ever give up the end of a golf tournament.”

“You’re playing to win, not be a hero,” Watson added. “The only person you have to beat is yourself. And he beat himself.”

Will Mickelson be able to put this calamity behind him?

“I don’t know. More than likely, to stay competitive you have to,” Tiger Woods said. “Failure is a part of our sport. It’s nothing new to him, nothing new to any of us. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, come back out the next week and play.”