San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
ONE ROUND FROM HISTORY
Lefty almost runs away, but still lots of work to do
Someone forgot to tell golf history that a brilliant, unthinkable, stirring edit of its résumé was being penned among the seagulls and ruthless ocean gusts at the PGA Championship.
Ten holes into the third round Saturday on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, 50-yearold Phil Mickelson, his big-stage game mothballed for years, pummeled a course known for delivering carnage of its own.
He spit out birdies like Tic Tacs on half of those holes, building a stunning five-stroke lead. He stiffarmed reigning champions of the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship in a field with 99 of the game’s top 100 players like so much balsa wood.
Then ... history balled up its fist and threw a haymaker.
When the fat lead vanished in the time it would take for a leisurely stroll along the South Carolina coast, Mickelson flashed enough of his well-worn grit to cling to a oneshot lead at 7 under.
A must-watch Sunday awaits. Mickelson, the apparent masochist, explained.
“I’m having so much fun that it’s easier to stay in the present and not get ahead of myself,” he said.
The whole of it astounded as Mickelson continued chasing the lunacy of a player winning a major in his 50s. The closest to the age-bedamned grail was Julius Boros, winning the PGA at 48 in 1968 during the waning weeks of Vietnam’s Tet Offensive.
No one drilled it into the head of Mickelson, who seemed to apply a vice grip on the 54-hole lead with seven tee shots to go.
The first blemish on his card came on a bogey-by-aninch at No. 12. Then Mickelson, notoriously fairway averse despite winning 44 times on the PGA Tour, snap-hooked his drive on 13 into the water.
America gasped. He stared through sunglasses for what seemed like an eternity, motionless and lost in foggy thought.
The first bruising brush stroke on a double bogey that trimmed the lead by three in
the span of mere minutes caused a fan to blurt “Hang tough, Phil” as if he were speaking for everyone watching Mickelson trudge to 14.
“It’s just an example of losing the feel and the picture of the shot and I get a little bit jumpy, a little bit fast from the top,” he said.
Suddenly, Mickelson found himself teetering on the edge of seeing all the spectacular play implode. This was when he would unravel. This was the moment extraordinary would hop in a taxi and high-tail it for the mainland.
Except, that didn’t happen. Mickelson wasn’t having it.
The chase for his sixth major, the first since Mickelson’s Open Championship
eight years ago at Muirfield in Scotland, found steady footing — or as steady as footing ever gets on this treacherous Pete Dye course.
Mickelson’s makeable birdie on 14 threatened to tumble in before dancing on the inside edge, redirecting and rolling past.
On the next tee, he funneled any simmering frustrations into his tee shot by uncorking a 327-yard rocket into the heart of the fairway — six yards farther than 27-year-old bomber Bryson Dechambeau earlier in the day.
As Mickelson walked to 18 tied with majors-masher and PGA Championship specialist Brooks Koepka at 7 under, a script written in pencil still threatened to reach for an
eraser.
Then Koepka, who claims majors among half of his eight victories with two of the last three Wanamaker Trophys, dropped a stroke to leave Mickelson alone once more.
History, though, has a funny way of poking a stick through the bicycle spokes. Mickelson’s final approach of the day sliced behind the green, some 66 feet away.
Calmly, he orchestrated a signature lob to within five feet of the hole for a gutsy par.
“At 50, he’s still a magician,” CBS announcer Jim Nantz said.
Age is just a number when it comes to Mickelson, frequent San Diego-area playing partner Charley
Hoffman maintained. He’s seen the toil and touch, along with the blood-lust to find the edge and fine-tune his game.
Phil did not lose what made him feel, he momentarily misplaced it.
“Phil works harder than anybody,” Hoffman said. “I know, second to none, he plays more holes than anybody. He practices harder than anybody.
“... It wasn’t a doubt that he would be playing good golf eventually.”
South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen, two strokes back, credited the golf stars rather than age for reeling in Mickelson and keeping him within reach.
“Other than (Nos. 12 and 13), he played beautifully,”
Oosthuizen said. “He putted well. He drove it unbelievably long and straight. I think we all got lucky that he came backwards into the field.”
So, Mickelson chases another chapter of golf immortality with someone nearly decades his junior sharing the final group spotlight.
“At least I can see what Phil is doing,” Koepka said. “Then I don’t have to turn back and look (to) see what he’s up to.”
Mickelson plans on aiming his eyes forward.
“I’m not really dwelling back on what took place (Saturday),” he said.
Keep golf history on speed dial, just in case.