Mickelson lacking focus during sluggish stretch

• By Ryan Ballengee
• Jul 27, 2012 10:28 AM ET

Phil Mickelson has broken par just twice in his last 13 competitive rounds worldwide. As he continues to drop in the Official World Golf Ranking, now 17th, Mickelson attributed his struggles to a chicken-or-egg kind of problem.

"One of the biggest areas ... is that mentally I haven't been focusing as fine as I need to," Mickelson said Thursday on "CBS This Morning." "I've been letting where I don't want the ball to go kind of creep in, in my head, as opposed to where I want it to go."

Mickelson shot 11-over 151 for two rounds last week at the British Open, sending him packing early in a major for the first time since 2007. The week prior, however, Mickelson seemed to have renewed interest as he played the middle rounds of the Scottish Open in 15 under par.

The four-time major winner suggested a lack of energy might be driving the intermittent focus.

"I've been a little bit lethargic those last two months," he said.

With seven starts coming in the next nine weeks for Mickelson through the FedEx Cup playoffs, he hopes to find a way to rededicate himself to the game.

"If I look back over the last couple of months, it's easier to identify where I've been going off, and I haven't played with the same purpose, whether it's approach heading into the golf tournament or whether it's on each individual shot," he said. "That's what I'm going to try to focus on these coming months to get this back on track."