RIDGEDALE, Mo. – Almost the only shoddy shot Phil Mickelson hit on his PGA Tour Champions debut was a rebel iron from the tee.
However, she turned him into a bird.
He was one of five in a row in the past nine on Monday for the five-time senior champion, who decided to make his over-50 debut this week after missing the cut at The Northern Trust and being eliminated from the PGA FedEx Cup playoffs. Tour.
Mickelson finished with 11 birdies and pulled a 10-under 61 to take a lead shot over David McKenzie at the Charles Schwab Series at the Ozarks National.
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s a fun environment. And it’s fun to see a lot of the guys I grew up with, and I’ve played with them for several years and they’ve played a lot of Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup with lots of guys out here,” he said. said Mickelson. “I was also a bit nervous, because I wanted to go out and play well. I was playing really well.”
KJ Choi, on his second start in the PGA Tour Champions, was joined in a 7-under group by Rocco Mediate, Rod Pampling and Tim Petrovic. Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer and Vijay Singh were among others affected.
“We still have a lot to play golf,” said Mickelson, who scored all but one greens in the rules. “Many players have gone really low. The quality of golf here is really impressive.”
Mickelson, who turned 50 in June, was optimistic that his game was in shape for the US Open, the only major championship he hasn’t won. But that missed cut on the PGA Tour left him with the option of not playing the next two weeks to enter the Safeway Open, which would be his last set up for Winged Foot.
Then, the Hall of Famer jumped on a jet to southwestern Missouri and the Ozarks National. The camp is the new gem of Big Cedar Lodge, the resort created by Mickelson’s good friend and Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris. With wide fairways and large greens, it hardly presents the Winged Foot challenge. But it gave Mickelson a chance to fine-tune his game.
Paired with friends Steve Stricker and Retief Goosen, he was among the last to leave on Monday. But he wasted no time in starting to chase McKenzie, who had posted a low-career round earlier in the day. Mickelson birdie first, added four more in the next six holes, and had another 11th par-4 birdie to compensate for his only bugbear.
Then his putter caught fire on the rolling, pristine greens.
Mickelson pulled a short birdie putt at No. 13, then another at 14, before his tee iron found the fairway bunker on par fifteenth. With the ball under his feet, Mickelson hit a solid approach 40 feet to the left of the hole, then the launched for a third straight birdie. He added two more birdies before losing a 15 foot last to shoot 29 on the rear nine.
The one-round birdie record in the PGA Tour Champions is 12.
“I was just trying to find a way to play this golf the smart way,” said Mickelson, who has only made 11 birdies in a round on the PGA Tour once – at the 2013 Phoenix Open, when he missed. short shot 59. “There’s plenty of room if you find the right club.”
McKenzie also found the right club all day. The Aussie made consecutive birdies to finish the top nine, then slammed three in a row to the back to shoot 62.
“I’ve done a lot of putts today, which makes it a lot easier,” he said, “but it has a bit of a vibe like Australia. I think it’s Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw who designed it, so I like it. the way he sits and feels. It’s a really comfortable golf course. “
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