{"id":33770,"date":"2016-07-31T08:03:27","date_gmt":"2016-07-31T15:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/mickelson-rallies-to-make-cut-mcilroy-bogeys-18-to-miss\/"},"modified":"2016-07-31T08:03:27","modified_gmt":"2016-07-31T15:03:27","slug":"mickelson-rallies-to-make-cut-mcilroy-bogeys-18-to-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/mickelson-rallies-to-make-cut-mcilroy-bogeys-18-to-miss\/","title":{"rendered":"Mickelson rallies to make cut, McIlroy bogeys 18 to miss"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. <\/strong>\u2014 Phil Mickelson walked off the first green with a disgusted look on his face, as if he\u2019d thrown away any shot at making the cut in the PGA Championship.<\/p>\n

A 7 on the opening par-4 hole will do that to you.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in the history of the PGA Championship, that\u2019s the worst start of any player\u2019s round,\u201d Mickelson said. \u201cI\u2019d have to look that up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five-time major winner set about steadying himself, writing the triple bogey on the scorecard and leaving it behind. With four birdies the rest of the way and only a slip-up on 16, Mickelson managed an even-par 70 to advance to the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to fight back and be patient from there on out, start to make a birdie here or there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As usual, Lefty\u2019s gallery was massive \u2014 he played with defending champion Jason Day, who is tied for third at 7-under, and Rory McIlroy, who bogeyed the relatively easy par-5 18th to miss the cut. Those thousands of fans were as stunned with the way Mickelson began as he was.<\/p>\n

After a 1-over 71 on Thursday, the PGA winner when the tournament last was held at Baltusrol in 2005 hit his drive so far left on No. 1 that its first bounce was on Shunpike Road. It appeared to hang a left on Baltusrol Drive, possibly on its way to the Hudson River.<\/p>\n

Playing a provisional on the 478-yard hole, Mickelson messed up once more, the ball landing far from the fairway, nestling near a path. His next shot almost landed in the backyard of a home adjoining the golf course.<\/p>\n

He needed two shots to reach the green, then, thankfully, he one-putted for a 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a total mental block on that first hole,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t even know what to say. It was just horrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mickelson began his comeback with a birdie on No. 3, got another on the 8th and one on No. 11. A bogey on the par-3 16th jeopardized his standing, but he made sure he would make the weekend with a birdie on the finishing hole.<\/p>\n

Then he let out a major sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having a difficult time right now managing my expectations, because I know how well I\u2019m playing,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019m so result oriented that I\u2019m not playing very relaxed, free golf like I did at the British, like I did in the preparation here. Tomorrow, I\u2019m going to try to go out and not worry about the score and just play a good round because I\u2019ve been hitting a lot of good shots. I\u2019m trying to force the issue because I know you\u2019ve got to get hot out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Mickelson, McIlroy couldn\u2019t respond, though he came close. The two-time major champion came off an opening 74 and needed to post a good number to remain in the tournament. He made his first birdie of the tourney on No. 4 and birdied 6, but bogeyed the ninth. After a birdie on 11, he was in position to stick around, but he bogeyed 13.<\/p>\n

McIlroy came to the only two par-5s on Baltusrol at 3 over; the cut would be plus 2. He birdied the more difficult 17th, then fell apart after hitting his second shot into the deep rough behind 18. Two wasted shots led to a 6 \u2014 and an early exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I needed to make 4,\u201d on 18, he said, \u201cso that\u2019s what I was trying to do. It was a tough lie. I hit the first one as hard as I really could considering how close the pin was to the edge of the green.\u201d<\/p>\n

He felt most betrayed by his putter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you had given anyone else in this field my tee shots this week, they would have been up near the top of the leaderboard,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cIt just shows you how bad I was around the greens. Tee to green was good, but it was just pathetic when I got onto the green.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. \u2014 Phil Mickelson walked off the first green with a disgusted look on his face, as if he\u2019d thrown away any shot at making the cut in the PGA Championship. A 7 on the opening par-4 hole will do that to you. \u201cI think in the history of the PGA Championship, that\u2019s the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33770"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}