Phil Mickelson (Photo credit: reedone)
Put Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods in the same room and they’d compete for oxygen.
That’s why Saturday at the 2013 PGA Championship looked so strange for the two uber-competitors, who played separately but stumbled similarly.
Mickelson blew up with an eight-over 78, triple-bogeying the par-four seventh and playing the final five holes in five over with a double bogey.
After trying to drive the 323-yard par-four 14th, Mickelson took a nice tour of the fringe, needing three back-and-forth chips to find the green before two-putting.
His drive on No. 16 dispersed the gallery – symbolic of a day he found just five of 14 fairways – before he saved par.
The British Open champion is in next-to-last at 10 over. With apologies to Stephen Gallacher, that’s not whom Mickelson expected to be paired with on Sunday.
A view of Tiger Woods as he walks off the 8th green at Torrey Pines during this morning’s practice round at the 2008 U.S. Open in San Diego, CA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Woods also enlisted crowd control, spraying three of the four tee shots he used driver into the crowd. The fourth found a fairway bunker.
He shot 73 and is tied for 48th at four over.
“Not joyous, that’s for sure,” Woods said when asked his mood. “It’s just one of those weeks where I didn’t quite hit it well enough and didn’t make enough putts. I kept blocking every putt.”
Woods also hit just five of 14 fairways and needed 32 putts in his round, which he began with a bogey when his approach from the rough on No. 1 hit a tree. – latimes
