{"id":9492,"date":"2012-03-31T03:40:33","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T01:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/golf-mickelson-surges-into-tie-for-lead-at-rain-hit-houston-open\/"},"modified":"2012-03-31T03:40:33","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T01:40:33","slug":"golf-mickelson-surges-into-tie-for-lead-at-rain-hit-houston-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/golf-mickelson-surges-into-tie-for-lead-at-rain-hit-houston-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf-Mickelson surges into tie for lead at rain-hit Houston Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

March 30<\/span> (Reuters) – Defending champion Phil Mickelson
\nrocketed into a three-way tie for the lead at the Houston Open
\nin Humble, Texas on Friday when the rain-delayed first round was
\nfinally completed.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The American left-hander, one under with 15 holes remaining
\nwhen play was suspended on Thursday after thunderstorms swept
\nacross Redstone Golf Club, carded a seven-under-par 65 to join
\nCarl Pettersson and Angel Cabrera at the top.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Swede Pettersson and Argentina’s Cabrera had both completed
\ntheir rounds in calm, overcast conditions on Thursday before
\nplay was halted for the day.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I played really well,” Mickelson told reporters after
\nmixing eight birdies with a lone bogey. “There was no wind. The
\nconditions were ideal. The greens were immaculate.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“If you could get it on the surface, you felt like you could
\nmake some putts,” added the four-times major winner, who
\ntotalled only 22 putts in the opening round.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Mickelson’s only blemish came at the par-five 13th where his
\nball picked up mud on the rain-softened fairway.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“There’s not much you can do about stuff like that,” said
\nMickelson, who won last year’s event by three strokes after
\nclosing with a sizzling seven-under-par 65.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Every shot in the fairway had a bunch of mud on it. It was
\ntough maneuvering around there.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

More than an inch of rain saturated the course on Thursday
\nand tournament organizers allowed the players to lift, clean and
\nreplace their balls in the second round.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Americans Ricky Barnes, Jeff Maggert and John Huh, plus
\nBritain’s Greg Owen, opened with 66s while last year’s PGA
\nChampionship winner Keegan Bradley and PGA Tour veteran Fred
\nCouples were among a group of seven players knotted on 67.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

British world number three Lee Westwood and fifth-ranked
\nAmerican Steve Stricker carded 68s and South African Charl
\nSchwartzel, who will defend his Masters title at Augusta
\nNational next week, returned a 69.\t<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by
\nJulian Linden)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 30 (Reuters) – Defending champion Phil Mickelson rocketed into a three-way tie for the lead at the Houston Open in Humble, Texas on Friday when the rain-delayed first round was finally completed. The American left-hander, one under with 15 holes remaining when play was suspended on Thursday after thunderstorms swept across Redstone Golf Club, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}