Mickelson stalks Taylor with skilled short game
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — For his final act on a day filled with short-game magic, Phil Mickelson hit a full-swing flop shot over a bunker that seemed to land in just the right spot on the 18th green at Pebble Beach Golf Links, rolling out to four feet from the cup. Somehow, it didn’t go in. For a while Saturday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, almost everything did for the 49-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer.
“It seemed like my short game was pretty good today,” the five-time major winner said after a 5-underpar 67.
The final birdie by Mickelson — Lefty is trying to win his second straight and sixth overall title in this event, which would push him to 45 career wins on the PGA Tour — left him one shot behind Nick Taylor, who had a cold start and a relatively quiet day at Spyglass Hill, away from all the hits and giggles around the celebrity rotation at Pebble Beach.
The 31-year-old Canadian overcame two early bogeys with a 25-foot eagle putt on his 16th hole for a 69 and his first 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour — a day after he held a 36-hole lead for the the first time. Taylor, whose lone victory on the tour came as a rookie at the Sanderson Farms Championship in November 2014, was at 17-under 198.
Mickelson and his sublime short game delivered more entertainment than all the athletes and celebrities combined during the show at Pebble Beach. He made the impossible look easy from a bunker behind the par-3 seventh green. He holed out from a bunker for birdie on the 13th, then chipped in from 90 feet for birdie on the next hole.
In his post-round interview with CBS, he suggested hitting only nine greens wasn’t all that bad because he kept missing in the right places, leaving him a good angle. The exception was the par-3 12th, where he made his lone bogey. Then he abruptly ended the discourse.
“Actually, that’s not true,” Mickelson said. “I had some pretty good up-and-downs.”
Topping the list was No. 7, the 110-yard hole down the hill toward the Pacific Ocean that is the most picturesque on the course. It looked like a terror for Mickelson when his sand wedge went long and plugged into the back bunker.
“I was just trying to not make 5,” Mickelson said. “I was trying to get on the green and just make a 4, give myself a putt at a par. But it came out great.”
It splashed out of the sand so perfectly that it took a few hops in the rough before reaching the green, losing enough pace to trickle two feet away for a tap-in par. Even for Mickelson, it rates among his best.
“Yeah, it’s No. 2 in my all-time greatest bunker shots,” Mickelson said. “I made one in the final round at Memorial, Muirfield Village, the old 16th hole from under the lip, plugged, and I holed that one. This one didn’t go in, but it was the second-best I’ve ever hit.”
Taylor’s best was a 3-wood shot onto the green at the par-5 seventh that led to eagle and assured he would have the lead. He will play with Mickelson for the first time during today’s final round at Pebble Beach.
“Obviously, if he makes a putt or great shot, the crowd’s going to go wild,” Taylor said. “I’ve just got to do my own thing, try to block all that out. Easier said than done without having to do it before, but I’ll do the best I can.”
Australia’s Jason Day posted a 70 at Spyglass Hill and was only three shots behind at 14-under 201. At one point No. 1 in the World Golf Ranking, the 2015 PGA Championship winner is in search of his first victory in nearly two years after spending most of 2019 injured and frustrated.
Baylor School graduate Keith Mitchell was tied for 55th at 3 under. He shot a 76 on Spyglass Hill after opening with a 69 at Monterey Peninsula and shooting a 67 on Friday at Pebble Beach.
Windy ‘grind’
BARWON HEADS, Australia — South Korea’s Ayean Cho shot a 2-under 70 on a difficult day for scoring to take a one-stroke lead over Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom into the final round of the LPGA Tour’s Vic Open.
Cho, who turned pro in 2019, was at 12-under 205 through 54 holes at 13th
Beach Golf Links. Sagstrom had been on top of an LPGA leaderboard for five straight rounds before her 74 took her down a notch Saturday. She was a shot ahead of Canada’s Alena Sharp (70). Five other golfers were within five strokes of Cho’s lead.
“I knew it was going to be difficult coming in, it was going to be a grind today,” Sagstrom told a television commentator before completing her round. “I am going to be tired after this.”
The event features a European Tour tournament running concurrently with the women’s competition. In that men’s event, Min Woo Lee eagled the 18th hole for 4-under 68 to move to 15-under 201 and take a three-stroke lead over two fellow Australians: threetime European Tour winner Marcus Fraser (69), who said the windy conditions bordered on unplayable, and Travis Smyth (72).
The men’s and women’s fields were reduced to 35 players each plus ties entering the final round, which will be played on the Beach Course. That layout and the Creek Course were used for the first two rounds.
“There is so much wind, it’s so hard to figure out when to pull the trigger,” Lee said. “I think it might be one of the best rounds I have ever played, regardless of the score.”