Mickelson, Spieth soar at wet Pebble Beach
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Phil Mickelson survived a wild finish without having to deal with the rain. Jordan Spieth endured a wet finish to his day with three tough pars, followed by unwitting help by a spooked fan.
Both were atop the leaderboard Friday in the AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm, joined by Lucas Glover, Paul Casey and Scott Langley, when the second round was suspended because the rain had formed large puddles on the greens.
They played more golf than expected by moving up the start by an hour, and it was entertaining as ever.
One day after Mickelson didn’t miss a fairway for the first time in 1,664 rounds on the PGA Tour, he couldn’t seem to find one at Spyglass Hill. He still surged into the lead, including one 3-wood from 256 yards out of the trees on the par-5 14th to 6 feet.
It caught up with him at the end. After banging in a birdie on the par-3 fifth, Mickelson missed three straight fairways that led to three straight bogeys until he closed with a 4-iron to 18 feet for birdie and a 4-under-par 68.
Mickelson was the first to finish at 10-under 133. Glover started strong in tame weather at Pebble Beach and shot a 6-under 66 to get to 10-under 134, while Langley (69 at Spyglass
Hill) and Casey (7-under 64 at Monterey Peninsula) narrowly finished at 10-under 133 ahead of the horn that ultimately stopped play for the rest of the day.
Three short blasts signaled the stoppage, but because it wasn’t a dangerous situation, such as lightning, players could complete the hole. Casey was on his final hole at Monterey when he heard the horn, followed by two more.
At Barwon Heads, Australia, American Kim Kaufman shot a 7-under 66 for a 13-under 132 total and a two-shot lead over Haru Nomura of Japan in the ISPS Handa Vic Open.
LPGA: Champions:
At Boca Raton, Fla., Jesper Parnevik shot a 9-under 63 in the Oasis Championship’s first round to take a one-stroke lead over Bernhard Langer.