Mickelson given late tee time
CARY, North Carolina: Phil Mickelson has been handed a late tee time for the first round of the US Open in Wisconsin next Friday, leaving open the faint possibility he could still compete in the major championship at Erin Hills.
Mickelson is scheduled to tee off at 2.20pm Central time, the US Golf Association announced yesterday when it released the threesomes for the first two rounds.
The 46yearold revealed recently that he planned to skip the
Open to attend his daughter’s high school graduation in southern California.
The ceremony is scheduled for 10am
Pacific time, which makes it impossible for Mickelson to 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 a weather delay could give the fivetime major winner time to get there, if his tee time is pushed back to either late afternoon or the next 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.
The USGA has put together some blockbuster threesomes, none better than the past three winners — Dustin Johnson (2016), Jordan Spieth (2015) and Martin Kaymer (2014) — playing together.
Also playing early in the first round and late in the second will be a glamour trio of young guns in Japanese Hideki Matsuyama, American Rickie Fowler and Spaniard Jon Rahm.
On the other side of the draw, Australian Jason Day, Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy and Englishman Justin Rose will keep each other company.
Masters champion Sergio Garcia, of Spain, will play with Australian Adam Scott and American Bubba Watson, while another group of potential contenders brings together British Open champion Henrik Stenson, of Sweden, and South Africans Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen. — Reuters