Mickelson rallies for Pebble lead

He turns three-shot deficit to Paul Casey into three-stroke pro-am lead before darkness.

Phil Mickelson had everything go his way Sunday in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He just couldn’t beat the darkness.

On a wild day of weather, sunshine gave way to a hail storm and a delay that kept Mickelson from capping a remarkable rally in which he turned a three-shot deficit against Paul Casey to a threeshot lead until it was too dark to finish the last two holes.

Mickelson, on the brink of matching Mark O’Meara with a fifth victory in the event, at least wanted to try.

“I can see fine,” he said to a PGA Tour rules official.

Casey simply couldn’t see, and when he realized it was not possible to finish he opted to mark his ball on the 16th green.

Mickelson already made his par on the 16th and was six under for the day, with no bogeys, and 18 under for the tournament. Casey has a three-foot par putt to stay three shots behind when they return at 8 a.m. Monday to play the par-three 17th and the par-five 18th.

“We’ve got two tough holes left and I don’t want to jump the gun and get past that,” Mickelson said. “I know a lot can happen in these two holes and they have happened in the past, so I want to stay focused and just come out tomorrow and try to finish it off. I wish we could do it tonight.”

Bernhard Langer won the Oasis Championship with a seven-under 65 for a five-stroke win. He finished at a tournament-record 19-under 197 for his 39th PGA Tour Champions win and broke Hale Irwin’s tour record for earnings with $27,196,504 . ... Celine Boutier claimed a two-stroke victory in the LPGA’s Vic Open in Australia while David Law made eagle on the par-five 18th to win the men’s title by a stroke.