Notebook: Phil Mickelson faultless finding fairways. B7
PEBBLE BEACH — Phil Mickelson defied his long history of erratic tee shots Thursday at Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course. Mickelson hit all 13 fairways — yep, every one of them — on his way to shooting 6under-par 65 in the opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
That planted Mickelson in early contention, one stroke behind Brian Gay and Scott Langley. Jason Day joined Mickelson in the group at 6-under.
Mickelson has fashioned a Hall of Fame career out of recovering from wayward tee shots, and with his extraordinary short game. On this day, though, he savored his uncommon accuracy off the tee.
“History was made today,” Mickelson said. “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.”
As it turned out, Mickelson did pull off the feat in 1998 — still, more than 20 years ago.
He now heads to Spyglass Hill for Friday’s second round. Tee times were moved up an hour, so play will begin at 7 a.m.; rain is expected to arrive later Friday morning. Shot of the day: Brandt Snedeker planted his tee shot on the rocky beach left of No. 18 at Pebble Beach. Snedeker, after much deliberation, lofted his second shot back onto the fairway, plopped his next shot on the green and made the putt for an all-world birdie. Choi’s debut: South Korea’s Ho Sung Choi, whose animated “fisherman swing” made him a viral sensation, shot 1-over 72 at Monterey Peninsula. Choi had four bogeys in the first 10 holes of his PGA Tour debut, then bounced back with three birdies in his final eight holes.
“I tried not to be nervous, but I was over the first few holes,” Choi said through an interpreter. “But I think I was lacking a little bit on my approach (lag) putts. Other than that, it was a great experience.”