Breaking : Phil Mickelson undergoes sixth back surgery recently due to….Details In Comment

Phil Mickelson has big plans for 2017, but he may get started later than he had hoped. Mickelson underwent his second sports hernia procedure in two months, it was announced Monday. The group that represents Mickelson, Lagardere Sports, released an update stating that Mickelson is expected to recover fully, but there is “no timetable” for his return.

Mickelson had his initial hernia surgery on Oct. 19, with a reported recovery time of four to six weeks. As of early November, he appeared on track and seemed he would be ready to return in due time.

Mickelson’s caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay had double knee replacement surgery on Oct. 19, yes the exact same day as his boss’s original hernia surgery. Mackay also felt he’d be prepared for Mickelson’s next event.

A 42-time winner on the PGA Tour (counting five majors among those victories), Mickelson had been pointed toward a 2017 return at the CareerBuilder Challenge in Palm Desert, Calif., Jan. 19-22. Though he’ll be there fulfilling a role as tournament ambassador, he likely won’t be teeing it up.

The worst part for Mickelson, who will be 47 in June, is this: He’s a West Coast guy, San Diego-born, and now his West Coast schedule, where he annually makes much of his hay and so often breaks fast out of the gates, is in jeopardy.

Mickelson has opened each of his last four calendar years in the desert at the tournament that was once the Bob Hope Classic. He’s won the tournament twice. If he is out until, say, March, when the Tour moves to Florida, that would mean he’d also miss out on the Farmers Insurance Open (he’s won at Torrey Pines three times); Waste Management Phoenix Open (three wins); AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (four wins); and possibly the Genesis Open (he’s been a winner twice at Riviera).

For a veteran who has big aspirations for the season ahead, wants to make Steve Stricker’s Presidents Cup team and has been bullish on the improvements in his game since beginning to work with Arizona instructor Andrew Getson, it would be the worst possible patch of the season for Mickelson to be on the sideline.

In 102 career early-season West Coast Swing starts at the five tournaments mentioned above, Mickelson has made 80 percent of his cuts, won 14 times (one-third of his total victories) and finished in the top 10 on 38 occasions. A year ago, he played well into the weekend at CareerBuilder (T-3) and contended at Pebble Beach (fading with a closing 72).

Mickelson’s last victory was the 2013 British Open at Muirfield, which means he has now has played 69 events since July 2013 without a victory. He’d never gone winless in back-to-back seasons until 2014-15/2015-16. In fact, Mickelson had only previously endured two winless seasons in his career since taking on a full-time PGA Tour schedule in 1993.

Roughly 23 percent of Mickelson’s $81,637,339 in career earnings (second all-time to Tiger Woods) have been earned in those five events, though he has not played at Riviera in the last three seasons.

At the Safeway Open in October, Mickelson’s lone start of the new wrap-around campaign, he tied for eighth and spoke with excitement afterward about the gains in his game and his improved swing plane. He talked about addressing his errant driving. But without being able to work with Getson in the offseason, he will be behind schedule once he does return.

“It was a good year to build off of,” Mickelson said of his 2015-16 season, in which he didn’t win but had three runner-up finishes, including the British Open at Troon, where he shot 65 yet lost a memorable Sunday duel to the red-hot Henrik Stenson.

“I had some good performances. My iron play came back, my wedge play, putting, it was a great putting year. A lot of really good positives that come from this year. I’ve got to fix my driving this offseason and I think the wins will follow.

“The only disappointment is I didn’t win. I had a couple good opportunities to do so and that’s the only thing the year was lacking. Had I been able to break through and get that British (Open), that would have made the whole year.”

Being part of the winning Ryder Cup side for the first time in eight years would have to suffice.

If Mickelson could get his sometimes wild driving fixed – Mickelson ranked 163rd in driving accuracy (54.82 percent of his fairways) and 141st in total driving last season – he said he would be set up to have “a great year” in 2016-17. But now, those plans are put on hold. And schedule-wise for Mickelson, though he should be healthy and ready to go for Augusta and the Masters, he’ll likely be on the sideline at a time of year he loves to compete. It’s certainly not what he wanted.