Phil Mickelson: Not Letting Bad Swings Affect Him
CBS’s Ian Baker Finch said it best. Saturday’s round at the PGA Championship felt like it was Sunday. But there’s still a nail-biting 18 holes to play, and golfers in contention were in different places on the happiness indicator.
Phil Mickelson, who has had a magic transformation in his game this week, is still leading after 54 holes. He’s happy about that. Lady Luck was smiling down on him most of Saturday.
He said he was not going to let a couple of bad swings derail the good work he has put into his game.
“I’m making a lot of progress, and I’ll continue to work on that and hopefully I’ll be able to eliminate a couple of those loose swings tomorrow,” he said after his round. “I have an opportunity to contend for a major championship on Sunday.”
Brooks Koepka, one back, is also happy because he’s so close to the lead, despite having knees so sore that were taped up, according to Sir Nick Faldo on the CBS telecast.
“I’ve got a chance to win, so that’s all I wanted to do today is not give back any shots and be there tomorrow with a chance, and I’ve got that,” he said to media after his third round.
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Louis Oosthuizen was less happy than the other two, but after leaving countless putts short of the hole and hitting a tee shot in the water on Saturday, he is satisfied with his position.
“All in all, two behind going into Sunday, I’ve got to take a lot of positives out of that with the way I was playing today,” he said after 54-holes.
As Mickelson fans know, he’s just one or two bad swings away from disaster, even when it looks like he is playing well. That’s exactly what happened on the back nine on Saturday.
Problems began when Lady Luck walked away from the TV screen when he was on the 12th tee. Mickelson’s drive landed in a waste bunker in a bad enough position that this second shot didn’t get to the green. That ended up being his first bogey of the day.
But she wasn’t done with him yet. She probably took a phone call from an irate Brooks Koepka fan because she stayed away for Mickelson’s drive on the 13th as well. That one found the water to the right and caused a real disaster of a double bogey.
Mickelson though said it was just losing the mental image of the shot. He said got “jumpy” and quick at the top which caused him to flip it. In this case, into the water at 13 and, later, into the sand at 16.
But Mickelson righted the ship enough to par his way in and finish with one a shot advantage, although the tee shot at the 16th that landed under a golf cart, in the sand, on the right edge of the cart path was disconcerting. They don’t call him Phil the Thrill for nothing. Let’s face it, he has a lot of Seve Ballesteros in him, by his own admission.
Now, strangely enough, the leaderboard is packed, but not totally packed with golfers who have already won majors. Players down to at least 1-under par, which is six back of the lead, are still in the picture. That includes Kevin Streelman, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Branden Grace, Gary Woodland, Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau, Sungjae Im, Corey Conners and Paul Casey. Of that bunch, Woodland and DeChambeau have major-winning experience, so, should they close in, they are less likely to fall back than the rest.
However, because of the penal nature of the golf course, anything could happen.
Ooszhuizen, though, when asked, restricted it to anyone four or five back.
Four back includes Streelman, Bezuidenhout, Grace, Woodland, Neiman or DeChambeau. Five back includes Im, Connors and Casey.
Beyond that, someone would have to shoot a 62, 63, 64 or 65 and have all the golfers in front of them double bogey up the place. It’s golf, though, and anything could happen, but having 12 guys fall that far down the leaderboard would be extremely unusual.
Mickelson, Koepka and Oosthuizen are best placed to have a run at winning the PGA Championship. One of them should end up with the Wannamaker Trophy at the end of the day on Sunday.
The only guarantee is that sentimentalists and the over 50-set will be pulling for Mickelson.