TUCSON, Ariz. – Phil Mickelson got into the mud after being shot in the 15th hole in Tucson National. He adjusted his legs for balance and hit an iron on the road below, winning applause from his partner Fred Couples.
Another 9-iron tie between 5 and 4 feet and, after wiping his shoes, an unlikely bird.
A little magic Mickelson has Lefty on the hunt to make history.
Mickelson’s mud bird highlighted a 3 under 70 at the Cologuard Classic on Friday, putting him in the fight for his third consecutive victory to open his PGA Tour Champions career.
“I was so hot. I was going to go in there and play it no matter what – how high the mud came from, it doesn’t matter,” Mickelson said. “It wasn’t a hard hit. The ball was fine, so I was going to get in there.”
Mickelson was 4 shots behind Mike Weir, who had a 66 bogey-free in windy conditions at Tucson National. Scott Verplank came out of a bunker on the green for the ninth par 4 bird to close a 65.
Mickelson bids to become the first player to win the first three starts in a PGA Tour-sanctioned tour.
Lefty had a relatively new front without stress, shooting 3 under one of the courses in which he became the last amateur to win the PGA Tour 30 years earlier. He hit the second shot in the eighth par-5 hole on the side of tee no. 3 adjacent, where Jeff Sluman passed after he came out.
“I hit myself here just to say hello,” Mickelson said, drawing a laugh from Sluman.
Faced with a difficult stretch of descent into the latent grass of Bermuda, Mickelson hit the ball at about 6 feet and made the putt for the bird.
The five-time major champion started having problems behind nine, starting with a three-put bogey on par-4 11. Mickelson took a double bogey after going out of bounds on par-4 13 and appeared to be in difficulty when his shot on the tee on number 15 rolled into a pond in the corner of the dogleg.
The pond was 237 meters from the tee, so Mickelson realized there was no way he could hit an iron in the wind. Once the ball got into the mud, it came in right after it.
“I’m going to have to get Callaway to send me another pair of shoes because they were new, but they’re no longer good,” he said.
Mickelson followed with another bird on par-5 17, carving an iron 3 in the front bunker and almost opening it. He closed with a hair on the difficult par-4 18 to pull equal-par 37 on the back nine.
Mickelson won the Missouri Ozarks national team in August last year, his first start after turning 50 and followed with a victory at the Virginia Country Club in October. Although he focused primarily on the PGA Tour, he opted to return to Tucson, where he won three times – first at Tucson National and TPC Starr Pass as a 20-year amateur at Arizona State.
“I have something to do to bring these short beasts closer,” Mickelson said. “If I can do that, I can do a lot of birds here, but it wasn’t the day. Today I didn’t score very well. I have to deal with it after that because these guys do a lot of birds and I have to try to make them I pass. “
Weir opened with two birds and followed with seven straight hairs. The 2003 Masters champion had five birds in a seven-hole stretch to shoot 5-under 32 on the back nine.
“Overall, it was solid all the time,” he said. “I made some nice putts. When you shoot 7 under, there are some close ones, I made some nice ones, I also played well.”
Verplank had a span of six birds in seven holes after starting on the back nine and following eight straight pars with his shot in the bunker.
“I didn’t hit a lot of photos in the bunker, but let’s see what happens and I hit a really good shot,” Verplank said. “But they’re lucky when they come in, so I’ll take it.”
Steve Stricker, who also plays in both the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions, was among a group tied for sixth place at 69. He has not played a PGA Tour Champions event since September and tied for fourth in Phoenix. Open from the PGA Tour this month. He won the 2018 tournament for the first of five senior titles.