Still hope of Mickelson taking part

PHIL Mickelson has been handed a late tee time for the first round of the US Open in Wisconsin on Thursday, leaving open the faint possibility that he could still compete in the major championship at Erin Hills.

Mickelson is scheduled to tee off at 9.20pm SA time.

The 46-year-old American revealed recently that he had planned to skip the Open to attend his daughter’s high school graduation in southern California.

The ceremony is scheduled for 7pm, SA time, which makes it impossible for him to big stage. His comments regarding the US Golf Association’s recent struggles will throw him firmly in the limelight.

Garcia has been solid since slipping on the green jacket in April. It seems unlikely he will go nearly two decades without winning a major only to win two in a row, but it could happen. Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler and Jon Rahm IF THE previous group highlighted the stars in their 30s, then this is a power group attend it and also make the roughly fourhour flight in his private jet to Wisconsin in time for his scheduled tee time.

But the late tee time is Mickelson’s only hope, because it means that a weather delay could give the five-times major winner time to get there, if his tee time is pushed back to either late afternoon or Friday morning.

It is an unlikely scenario, but one that has prompted Mickelson not to officially withdraw from the only major championship he has never won. — Reuters representing some of the game’s brightest talents in their 20s. Matsuyama hasn’t played well since his winning barrage last winter, but he has the long game to win a US Open.

Fowler has been peppering leaderboards all year. His putting stroke looks good and he is finding fairways with relative ease.

Rahm has set the golf world ablaze with consistent form. He has finished T-4, T-72, T-2, MC in his last four starts. Under that trend he might just earn another victory this week.