Last Sunday, Phil Mickelson won the AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, and it donned on me how boring golf is.

Going into the final round of the tournament, Eldrick “Tiger” Woods and Mickelson were paired together — a matchup taking place for the 10th time.

Woods had a two-shot lead over Mickelson, but still trailed 3rd-round leader Charlie Wi by three shots.

Beginning on the 3rd hole, “Lefty” began his assault on the famed links and never looked back — he would eventually clear Woods by nine shots and win the tournament by two.

When the dust settled, it became apparent that if the PGA tour is going to once again become a big blip on the sporting radar of America, Woods is going to need to step up his game.

The reason for this necessity is twofold. Not only is Woods the most exciting player of the modern era when he is on, but fans of the game have become accustomed to him winning tournaments by vanquishing his foes and fist pumping along the way — a feat nobody has been able to do in the past two years.

In the past four tournaments — including this past week’s event — the man who went to sleep

Saturday night with the lead ended up fumbling it and limping to a lackluster finish, while someone else slid in and collected the lions’ share of the money and a nice piece of hardware.

Kyle Stanley, Spencer Levin and Wi have all faltered, and to be honest, that’s what we should expect.

In a game that takes not only insane hand-to-eye coordination, but also an ability to block out everything else in the world and focus for a few seconds on hitting a little ball, these men are the norm.

Just for a second, imagine that you are taking an exam and it will be the difference between wealth or poverty in your future.

Now, take that exam in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people who are watching your every move as cameras stream it to millions of viewers.

Plus, you are competing against 164 other equally qualified people, and only one of you can win.

That is just a little taste of what professional golf takes — and that doesn’t even take into account the fact that a single unplanned twitch of a muscle, slight change in your posture or degree of an angle can be the difference between cashing a check for more than $1 million or avoiding collection calls on Monday morning.

Basically, it’s not that easy to do what Woods did for more than a decade.

Unfortunately, his super-human golfing prowess became the norm, and when expectations are set, they are almost impossible to reverse.

Will he ever get back to the form he exhibited in 2001 when he had the single-most impressive season in the history of the game? I like to think so, but history signals a different ending.

Jack Nicklaus won his last major at the age of 46. If that improbable weekend never happened, or if Greg Norman had just made a putt, Woods would be chasing three instead of four more majors to tie the Golden Bear — an easier task since there are only four chances annually.

Maybe it’s karma’s revenge on Woods for his philandering, or maybe he put too much torque on his joints when he was younger to stay healthy.

Either way, I miss the days when Woods would march through a tournament and everyone knew he would win — the only thing in question was the margin of victory.

Seeing some random, soon-to-be driving range pro choke away a win is like watching the NBA — boring and nonsensical.

Here’s to hoping Eldrick gets his game back — golf needs him now more than ever.