Mickelson turns nature walk
into a 68 and a shot at the top
AKRON, Ohio – Ah, the wonders of that blimp that floats around a thousand or so feet above Firestone South. Truth through helium – that’s their motto. They turn the camera down and show a pristine river of bright green, that being the fairway. Most any fairway, really. There are fans lining both sides, to one volume or another, but there is perhaps one golfer and his caddie out on that emerald strip. Then someone does a technical trick and draws a little white circle off to one side of that fairway, and there is someone standing there, with trees in his way, and maybe a bunker or two up ahead. He’s just a dot from that altitude, nearly surrounded by other dots, like folks who have rushed to a highway accident. There is no need to stick a name on him. It’s Phil Mickelson, of course.
Is he leading a nature walk or playing golf? Have they stopped to admire the Rocket Larkspur (Delphinium ajacis) or are they mourning over the position of his golf ball?
Well, at this particular time, being Friday and the second round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, Mickelson is playing golf and his position, as usual, is none too encouraging. His ball is sitting down in some heavy grass, and dead ahead he’s got to fly over trees some 30 feet high in order to get near or reach the green, which is guarded by bunkers. All in all, his situation is not encouraging. And yet he somehow scraped out a 68, two under par, and is only one stroke behind the leader, Retief Goosen, and in excellent shape to win his first WGC event at Firestone.
“I didn’t play great today,” Mickelson offered. “I hit some bad shots and I was able to salvage a lot of pars today.”
Actually, it’s more like he got away with murder. But eventually, you have to pay the piper for stuff like this, and at the par-4 14th, the guy was playing “Amazing Grace” over him.
Lefty Phil hit his tee shot way, way left and into a bunker, and he was plumb out of options.
“It was hard for me to go low under the trees because of the front lip,” he said. “For me to get it over the lip, I thought it would go up into the trees. So I tried to go over with a 9-iron.”
It all translated into a double bogey. But didn’t he bounce right back with a couple of birdies.
Back at the par-4 No. 9, was wide right, and had to sacrifice distance in order to get the altitude necessary to fly the trees. He came down well short, pitched on, and got his par.
And then came the 17th, and the innocent spectator in the red shirt. This you could see from the miracle of the blimp, the guy sauntering innocently down the cart path with a pal, and then suddenly doubling over when the golf ball came over the trees and hit him amid ships.
“I think the gentleman learned the hazards of following me and walking down in the landing area,” Mick said. “I think that he might want to stay more by the tee.”
After the bank shot off the fan, Mickelson negotiated the trees and came down short of the green, pitched on and holed the putt for a par. At the 18th, he was in the left rough this time, put his second into the front bunker and got up and down.
There was the hidden magic, though.
Mickelson, describing his saves: “With the greens being soft [from rain], there are opportunities to salvage pars a little easier.”
At No. 9: “Where that pin is, the first skip is always going to go a little bit past, but because the greens were softer, I was able to get it to spin back and end up making a four-footer.”
It was like that at the 18th. He finessed a three-footer out of a bunker shot that ordinarily would have gone 15 feet past. And so he parred again, and then was reminded that he’d predicted a low round out of somebody this week.
“Yeah, it’s coming,” Mickelson said.
Nobody was cruel enough to wonder whether it had his name on it.
Notes and Quotes from Bridgestone:
Check his ID card; That’s not Tiger Woods
The TV sports guy on a local channel was suffering from misfounded fears. On reporting that Tiger Woods had shot 74 in the first round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, he went on to note, solemnly, that Woods might not make the cut. The chap, not having caught on after 10 years, didn’t realize there is no cut in this tournament. But his concern about Woods’ play is justified.
Somebody should ask for an autograph, to see what name he signs. This isn’t Tiger Woods.
In terms of numbers, Woods’ 74-72 start were his first back-to-back over-par rounds at any World Golf Championship tournament. Juxstapose that with his record: seven wins in 10 visits here to Firestone South.
In certain professional circles, the expression “cascade” is used when referring to a person hit by one thing after another, like a bad chain reaction. In Woods’ case, it seems to be a Niagara. He’s missing everything – fairways, greens, putts. If there is one thing that has led to all the others, it isn’t apparent. He’s like a conventioneer groping his way down a dark hallway.
Woods is starting to look like a first-timer at Firestone. He shot a 2-over 72 in the second round Friday, after an opening 74, his worst ever at Firestone. That puts him 13 off Retief Goosen’s lead heading into the weekend. It’s his worst showing since the Wells Fargo Championship in April.
As to what might be wrong – he refused requests for an interview.
Profile: In the first round, he missed at least two putts of about 4 feet, pulling them wide left without even nearing the hole, and rolling 2 feet past. He did much the same on some longer ones, and missed to the right, as well. These weren’t lip-outs. He hit trees, hit the rough, hit a hospitality tent, and the like. He had a number of blessings, bouncing off trees back into play. At No. 10, his approach, rocketing for doom well beyond the green, hit a TV tower and bounced down into the fringe, maybe 4 feet off the green.
The stark statistics: Of the 14 driving fairways, he hit only five in the first round, three in the second. In hitting the 18 greens in regulation, he hit 11 in the first round, seven in the second.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that he won’t miss the cut.
UNLIKELY LEE – England’s Lee Westwood, ranked No. 3 in the world, withdrew after shooting 76, and also withdrew from next week’s PGA Championship, citing an injury to his lower right leg. “I will be out for as long as it takes to get better,” Westwood said. “I’m just hoping it will be in time for me to play in the Ryder Cup [in September].”
NO MORE PATCHWORK: Justin Leonard, on the long hours he’s put into reworking his swing: “It was time to do it. Band-Aids weren’t going to last much longer.”
Leonard has yet to log a top-10 finish in 18 starts this season. But he has these bright hopes for a good finish to the season: His 68-66 start in the Bridgestone, and a tie for second in the 2004 PGA at Whistling Straits, where the PGA will be played next week.
BITS AND PIECES -- Dustin Johnson’s 65 was his best in six WGC starts … Sweden’s Peter Hanson (68-66 – 134, tied for fourth), in the field off the top-50 on the World Golf Rankings, had two straight rounds in the 60s for the first time in his six WGC starts … No. 4, 471-yard par-4, was the toughest hole, playing at an average of 4.235; the easiest, as usual was No. 2, 526-yard par-5, playing at 4.469 … Of the 81 starters, 35 shot below the par of 70, 32 shot over par; lowest score, 65, by Dustin Johnson and South Africa’s James Kingston; highest, 76, by Anthony Kim and Japan’s Yuta Ikeda.
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