Mitchell tied for 9th at Pebble Beach Pro-Am
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Phil Mickelson has been coming to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am since 1995 and has won it four times, so there isn’t much he hasn’t accomplished along the Monterey Peninsula.
Thursday delivered something new to him: Mickelson didn’t miss a single fairway.
“History was made today,” Mickelson said after his 6-underpar 65 on the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula, leaving him one shot behind co-leaders Brian Gay and Scott Langley. “To the best of my knowledge, it’s taken me 27 years and a few months to hit all fairways in a single round in competition. I may have done it before, but I don’t ever recall doing it.”
His accuracy was better than his memory. According to the PGA Tour, Mickelson has done it seven times, most recently 21 years ago at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego. Perhaps even more remarkable about that round in 1998 was that even playing from the short grass on every shot, he still had a 73.
That wasn’t the case on an ideal day — perhaps the last beautiful day of the week — for scoring. Over three rain-softened tracks — the Shore Course, Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach — 59 players in the 156-man field shot in the 60s.
At 6 under, Mickelson was tied with Jason Day, Matt Every, Kevin Kisner — who all played the Shore Course — Cody Gribble, who had a 66 at Spyglass Hill, and Si Woo Kim, who had a 66 at Pebble Beach.
The larger group another stroke back in ninth included Baylor School graduate Keith Mitchell (66 at Shore Course), while fellow former Red Raiders standout Stephan Jaeger (74 at Pebble Beach) was tied for 127th.
There was no shortage of entertainment, as is typical of this tournament.
Brandt Snedeker probably wasn’t thinking about making a birdie when his tee shot on the par-5 18th at Pebble Beach missed left and bounced down to the sandy shore. He played it off the beach back to the fairway, hit a 7-iron shot that left the ball 10 feet from the hole and made the putt for a 69.
“I didn’t hit myself, I didn’t fall down getting out of the rocks down there — it was a little slippery,” said Snedeker, who was tied for 29th. “So it all worked out great. I’m feeling like a genius right now, but at the time I didn’t know.”
Mitchell hit a left-handed shot from a wooden bridge through rough and onto the green, leading to a par and duly impressing his amateur partner, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
Gay finished his front nine with five straight birdies. Langley, who shared low amateur honors in 2010 at Pebble Beach in the U.S. Open, made seven birdies in a 10-hole stretch in the middle of his round. He finished with a birdie that allowed him to tie Gay for the firstround lead.
Now the real work begins. A few clouds began to arrive from the Pacific, with more on the way. The forecast is for rain and wind at various points over the next two days, perhaps into Sunday, and today’s starting times were moved up an hour.
Late charge for lead
BARWON HEADS, Australia — Felicity Johnson made a late move up the LPGA leaderboard to take a two-stroke lead after the opening round of the Vic Open.
The 31-year-old Englishwoman shot an 8-under 65 on the Creek Course at the 13th Beach Golf Links, where men and women played in alternate groups in a unique tournament format.
The event is also sanctioned by the men’s European Tour.
Australia’s Su Oh made a hole-in-one and had shared the women’s lead for most of the day with Anne-Catherine Tanguay, both at 6 under. Kim Kaufman joined them in a tie for second with a 66 on the Beach Course, where par is 72.
Six players were tied for fifth. Nick Flanagan, a 34-year-old Australian who won the 2003 U.S. Amateur, shot a 10-under 62 on the Creek Course to take a two-stroke lead in the men’s tournament. Six golfers were tied for second.