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      Michelle Wie West Was Ready to Retire. Then She Got Mad.

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      A golf phenom since she was 10, Michelle Wie West was ready to focus on motherhood. Rudy Giuliani’s vulgar remarks convinced her that she should keep fighting and playing.SAN FRANCISCO — From a distance approximating one of her prodigious drives, Michelle Wie West caught a glimpse of her infant daughter in the arms of her mother, who was standing on a hotel balcony. It was Wie West’s first competitive tournament as a working mom, and at the sight of her child, whom she felt guilty about leaving, she burst into tears.“And then I hit in the water,” Wie West said with a laugh, recalling her “meltdown,” as she described it, during her opening nine-over-par 81 at the Kia Classic near San Diego in March.Wie West, 31, who is competing in the United States Women’s Open, which begins Thursday at the Olympic Club, has missed the cut in all three of her starts this season. The impenetrable focus that carried her to five L.P.G.A. titles, including the 2014 U.S. Open, has been diffused by marriage, motherhood and a motivation to deepen the conversation about, and commitment to, women in sports.Reams of copy have been written about Wie West since she became, at 10, the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Public Links and announced her intentions to grow up to play on the L.P.G.A. and PGA Tours. She turned pro before her 16th birthday and contended deep into the final rounds of her first three L.P.G.A. major tournaments that first year, establishing a bar that proved hard to clear. She won her first tournament in 2009 at the age of 20, then three more before she won the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. But she has only won once since, the HSBC Women’s World Championship in 2018.And so, in 2019, Wie West could not have imagined herself here. Chronic wrist injuries precipitated a two-year layoff that she presumed would become permanent when she became pregnant a few months after her 2019 wedding to Jonnie West, the director of basketball operations for the N.B.A.’s Golden State Warriors. She told her husband that she was done playing.“I thought there was no chance of coming back,” said Wie West. She had opportunities to move into the broadcasting booth, and motherhood seemed like a natural pivot point.“But my husband was like, ‘No, no, just think it through,’” she said.When Wie West learned that she was having a daughter, her feelings about a comeback shifted for reasons she struggled to articulate. And then in February, a month before her official return, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, appeared on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast and asked if he could share a “funny story” about Rush Limbaugh, who had recently died.Giuliani recalled how Limbaugh had been perturbed by the photographers trailing them in a 2014 pro-am in which they were grouped with Wie West. Giuliani said that the “gorgeous” Wie West’s putting stance was attracting the photographers, who, he said, “were trying to take pictures of her panties.”Giuliani’s comments crystallized Wie West’s reasons for a comeback, irking her into action. After 25 years of speaking into a microphone as a matter of duty, Wie West realized that she actually had a lot to say, and a return to competition would give her the platform to address inequities and ignorance that she hadn’t been aware of as a teenage phenom.More affirmation came this week as she watched Naomi Osaka, another young nonwhite woman who is a star in a white-majority sport, quit the French Open rather than participate in news conferences she said were damaging to her mental health.“I thought what Naomi did this past week was incredibly brave,” said Wie West, who described her own experience with anxiety:“It’s tough, especially when you’re not doing well or there’s a lot more to life than your game. There could be other stuff happening. It is sometimes crippling at times, but I’m really proud of athletes taking charge of their mental health and making it a priority. More conversations need to be had about that.”Wie West is willing to wade into difficult conversations because she wants her daughter, Makenna Kamalei Yoona West, who will celebrate her first birthday on June 19, to grow up in a world where women athletes are seen and heard, and enjoy equal billing with men.In the past year she has revealed a different side of herself — as a leader in the drive for equity and change. With his words, Giuliani triggered Wie West’s election to the L.P.G.A. board of directors and her commitment to speak up more.“She texts me and calls me all the time,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, a two-time tour winner who is now the L.P.G.A. chief communications and tour operations officer. “It’s great. I’ve had more conversations with her in the last two years than in her whole time on tour.”Wie West hits out of the bunker on No. 11 during the first round of the ANA Inspiration in February.Kelvin Kuo/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWie West has sought out other athletes who fought for change, including Renee Powell, one of the first African-American members of the L.P.G.A., and tennis icon Billie Jean King, who described how her threat to boycott the U.S. Open in 1973 as the defending women’s champion spurred the tournament to become the first of the Grand Slam events to pay men and women equally for their victories. Wie West has compared notes with W.N.B.A. standout and players’ association president, Nneka Ogwumike, whose undergraduate years at Stanford overlapped with hers.The conversations inspired Wie West to float the idea of forming an inter-sport council that could address the pay disparity and unequal resources between men’s and women’s sports.In 2019, the last full season before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the playing calendar, 73 women’s players exceeded $50,000 in on-course earnings. That same season on the PGA Tour, the 73rd-highest earner made $1,553,149.The golfer who wins this Sunday will take home $1 million, from $5.5 million, the largest purse on the tour. The winner of the men’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines this month will earn $2.25 million from a $12.5 million purse.Recently Wie West was reminded by her father-in-law, Jerry West, who works for the Los Angeles Clippers as a consultant, that the big money in men’s sports didn’t materialize overnight.West, the second overall pick in the 1960 draft, told her that he didn’t have an agent when he turned pro and for the duration of his first contract he held an off-season job in community relations for Great Western Savings to supplement his N.B.A. income. “He told me the N.B.A. was not something that they considered a full-time profession,” said Wie West. Like king tides, the wave that will lift all paychecks requires a perfect storm of leadership, talent, exposure, performances, marketing — to be aligned.With her 300-yard drives and fearless forays into men’s tournaments, a teenage Wie West was positioned as the game changer, the charismatic player who could take the L.P.G.A. Tour that Nancy Lopez popularized and deliver it, Tiger Woods-like, to a mainstream sports audience.Wie West was driving coverage of the women’s game before she was old enough to get behind the wheel of a car. So she was surprised when she stumbled onto the statistic recently that women are afforded roughly four percent of sports media coverage.Looking back, Wie West said, “I definitely can remember thinking, ‘Ugh, another interview. Stop talking about me.’”As a teenager, she was criticized by other golfers for hogging the spotlight, when in reality, she was attracting eyeballs that otherwise would have ignored women’s golf. Her visibility gained women’s golf new fans — and Wie West more critics. Dottie Pepper, a two-time major winner, described her in a 2007 essay published in Sports Illustrated as “overexposed, miserable and manipulated.”“I’m pretty honored that people chose to care about me,” Wie West said, “but it definitely was tough at times because I went through a lot of lows, really never a moment where I could just go under the radar.”Giuliani’s comments yanked Wie West out of her maternity leave and back into the spotlight. When she learned of his vulgar remarks, what she had lived and what she had learned recently about women’s place in the sports firmament coalesced into unadulterated outrage.Wie West said she started to tap out a social media response, “but I was so riled up, everything I was saying wasn’t really coming out right.”Her husband gently suggested that she carefully consider her message. “You have a chance to say something really important here,” Jonnie said he told her.In the response she drafted with input from her husband and posted to Twitter, Wie West said, in part, “What this person should have remembered from that day was the fact that I shot 64 and beat every male golfer in the field leading our team to victory.”When the writer Eric Adelson saw Giuliani’s comments, he recalled the men’s U.S. Open sectional in 2006, and following a 16-year-old Wie, who was the youngest competitor and only woman trying to earn a spot in the men’s field at Winged Foot.As he wrote three years later in the book, “The Sure Thing: The Making and Unmaking of Golf Phenom Michelle Wie,” he overheard an exchange between two college-aged men. One said, “Pretty swing,” to which the other responded with a crude comment about her physique.Speaking recently by telephone, Adelson said, “I remember cringing when I first heard that. I thought it was gross, and then when I heard what Giuliani said, I thought it was extremely gross.”He applauded Wie West’s response. “It just shows that she grew up,” Adelson said, “but a lot of other people didn’t.”A grown-up Wie West knows how to turn her anger into agency. She pitched a cotton candy blue-and-pink tie-dye hoodie with the L.P.G.A. logo to tour executive Roberta Bowman, who loved the idea. The limited-edition sweatshirts sold out after they were worn by Warriors players, and to Wie West’s surprised delight, the large and extra large sizes were snatched up first.Men clothed as billboards for the women’s game instead of ogling the women athletes. For Wie West, the victories don’t come much bigger than that. More

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      Phil Mickelson, at 50, Wins P.G.A. Championship

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      Mickelson became the oldest winner of a major golf tournament after a tense final round on the treacherous Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Weathering a riveting, roller-coaster test of nerve over five hours, Phil Mickelson, who will turn 51 next month, won the P.G.A. Championship on Sunday to become the oldest golfer to win a major championship. The record was previously held by Julius Boros, who was 48 when he won the 1968 P.G.A. Championship.Mickelson shot six under par for the tournament, finishing two strokes ahead of the runners-up, Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen.Mickelson becomes the latest in a growing group of sports stars who have defied traditional retirement ages for athletes and proved that championships can still be won in careers that last into middle age. Mickelson has followed the lead of Tom Brady, who won his seventh Super Bowl title three months ago at 43. Serena Williams has remained consistently in the hunt for elite titles at 39, an age that historically has seen tennis players recede to a senior circuit. Tiger Woods, although seriously injured in a car crash in February, won his fifth Masters tournament two years ago at 43.“I hope that this inspires some to just put in that little extra work, because there’s no reason why you can’t accomplish your goals at an older age,” Mickelson said after his round. “It just takes a little more work.”Mickelson has been among the most popular American golfers for three decades, and the final scene of his Sunday triumph made it obvious that his appeal had not waned.At the final hole, Mickelson rocketed his tee shot into the gallery left of the fairway, but he lofted a 9-iron from the rough to within 16 feet of the hole as the crowd roared its approval. He walked toward the green shaking his left fist above his shoulder. As he did, he was enveloped by hundreds of fans, who surged past security guards and the police to celebrate alongside him.Hugged, jostled and patted on the back, Mickelson needed several minutes to walk the final 50 yards to the 18th green. With spectators chanting his first name, he finally emerged to a green encircled by the crowd. Two putts sealed his victory.Mickelson later called the experience “slightly unnerving but exceptionally awesome,” and said he would “cherish it for my entire life.”Mickelson, surrounded by security, had to press through a throng of fans on the 18th fairway.Matt York/Associated PressMickelson’s achievement, his sixth major title, could prove to be a bookend to three decades in golf’s spotlight. A four-time college all-American, he won his first professional tournament while an amateur and was unable to cash its hefty check. After turning pro, he racked up victories on the PGA Tour, but soon became better known for his failure to win his first major championship.Mickelson has also had the misfortune of playing most of his career in the shadow of the superstar Woods, who won six major championships before he was 26. But Mickelson did not break through until he was 33, when he claimed the 2004 Masters during his 13th year on tour. Two other Masters championships followed, in 2006 and 2010, as well as a victory at the 2005 P.G.A. Championship, but there were also frequent, dispiriting setbacks, including six second-place finishes at the United States Open, American golf’s national championship. Before Sunday’s victory at the treacherous Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, Mickelson had not won a major since the 2013 British Open.Mickelson misses a putt on the par-5 No. 11 hole.Matt York/Associated PressMickelson, however, has remained a fan favorite, in part because of a daring style of play and because of his Everyman physique, which stands in stark contrast to the fit, muscular bodies of the modern golfer best typified by Woods. Known as Lefty because he swings at a golf ball left-handed — even though he is naturally right-handed — Mickelson has spent decades comfortably engaging with golf galleries, often using a smile and a thumbs-up, a gesture he learned from Arnold Palmer.Mickelson’s rush up the leaderboard at this P.G.A. Championship was not foreshadowed by his recent performances. Since missing the cut at last year’s U.S. Open, his best result on the PGA Tour had been a tie for 21st. He finished outside the top 50 nine times.Playing in dark sunglasses and with an air of calm, Mickelson began Sunday’s round with a one-stroke lead over Koepka, who finished the event in a tie for second place with Oosthuizen at four under par.But long before Mickelson’s triumphant outcome was certain, he was locked in a tense, topsy-turvy battle, first with Koepka and then in the closing holes with Oosthuizen.While Mickelson appeared to have a comfortable four-shot lead over the field with six holes to play, his second shot at the 13th hole hooked into a water hazard, which led to an unsettling bogey. On the par-3 14th hole, Mickelson came up short and right of the green. He chipped to eight feet, but missed the par putt for another bogey.Almost simultaneously, Oosthuizen made two steadying pars at the 14th and 15th holes to pull within three strokes of Mickelson, who was at six under par for the tournament. Mickelson made par at the 15th hole, but Oosthuizen birdied the par-5 16th hole — his eagle putt narrowly missed — to cut Mickelson’s lead to two strokes.Mickelson responded with a par on the 15th hole, then hit a towering 337-yard drive to the middle of the 16th fairway. His second shot bounced on the green but skipped off the back. A dicey chip nestled next to the hole for an easy birdie, and Mickelson headed to the hardest hole on the longest golf course in major championship history with a three-shot lead.Mickelson’s 6-iron from the 17th tee took a big bounce just to the left of the hole and trundled into knee-high grass behind the green 60 feet from the flagstick. After several minutes of deliberation, he wedged his ball safely on the putting surface, where he two-putted for a bogey that still kept him two strokes in the lead.Brooks Koepka hitting out of a bunker on No. 16 Sunday. He birdied the par-5 hole.Matt York/Associated PressHours earlier, in the middle of a sunny, humid day along the South Carolina coastline, Mickelson had taken a gut punch to his chances when Koepka wrested the lead from him on the opening hole. In a matter of minutes, a three-putt bogey by Mickelson and a Koepka birdie had reversed the names atop the leaderboard. But Koepka gave away the advantage with a double bogey on the second hole, even as Mickelson continued to struggle with his accuracy.His brother and caddie, Tim, pulled Phil Mickelson aside after the sixth hole and gave him a mild scolding.“Tim said, ‘If you’re going to win this thing, you’re going to have to make committed golf swings,’” Mickelson said, adding that he had been too passive. “It hit me in the head — I have to swing committed. The first one I made was the drive on 7.”Mickelson birded the seventh hole, which Koepka bogeyed. By the turn, Mickelson had pushed ahead by two strokes.When Mickelson’s final putt dropped into the cup on the 18th green, the brothers embraced for several seconds.Celebrating on the 18th green with his brother and caddie, Tim Mickelson.Jamie Squire/Getty Images More

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      Four Major Tournaments in Four Months Is a Lot of Important Golf

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      Professional golfers worry about sustaining peak form, but say that scheduling four championships April through July is good for the game, and anyone who gets on a roll.KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — This is just the second time in the modern era of men’s professional golf that the sport’s four major championships will be contested in consecutive months, one each from April through July. The schedule was similar in 2019 when, after years of deliberation, the P.G.A. Championship opted to move to May, from its long standing date in mid-August.But the pandemic in 2020 forced three major championships, the P.G.A. Championship, the United States Open and the Masters, to be held from August to November. So, when this year’s P.G.A. Championship concludes Sunday at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, the world’s top men’s golfers will have played five majors in 10 months. Moreover, if the 2021 U.S. Open and this year’s British Open are held as expected in June and July, respectively, golf will have crammed seven majors into 12 months.If that weren’t enough, many of the best men’s players will also be competing in the Tokyo Olympics golf tournament from July 29 to Aug. 1.It is unlikely such a grueling schedule would occur again, at least intentionally, but it raises the question of whether golf’s best players can be expected to peak for the sport’s biggest championships repeatedly in a compressed time period. And moving forward, what are the challenges to staying mentally and physically prepared for golf’s new format of four majors in four months? For pro golfers, it is a little like the lengthy playoff runs in professional basketball, hockey, soccer and baseball.“It feels like every two or three weeks we’re at a venue where it’s super stressful because it’s a difficult golf course or a difficult event,” Kevin Kisner, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, said.Kisner added: “It feels like I’m constantly getting beat up out here with the big schedule. The hardest thing is every event feels big. I haven’t played well in any of them.”It has forced some players to make difficult choices, like skipping regular tour events that they used to play so they can rest for the condensed series of major tournaments. Justin Thomas, the world’s second ranked golfer, made such a decision last month when he took two weeks off after the Masters, even though not playing can diminish a golfer’s competitive edge.“I’m just not in the physical or mental state to be able to play a golf tournament after the grind of a pressure-filled event like the Masters,” Thomas said. “I need the time to relax and then get into it later where I feel like I’m peaking for this big stretch coming up.”While the new schedule has added to the strain of trying to claim what can be a career-defining major championship, most players believe it is worth it for two chief reasons: Golf no longer goes head-to-head with the N.F.L. in the fall, and players can take a break and put their clubs away earlier.Moving the P.G.A. Championship from August to May does both because it allows the PGA Tour’s season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs to start, and end, sooner.“If you poll all the players, I would think they would be happy about the way it is now,” Jordan Spieth, a three-time major winner, said this week. “We can finish our season in August and not compete with football. And then create a little bit of an off-season for ourselves.”Playing the P.G.A. Championship in the spring rather than the summer also allows the event to be played in more parts of the United States. Scheduling the tournament in August meant that areas of the country that experience especially hot summer conditions, which are ruinous to greens, could not stage a P.G.A. Championship. That eliminated wide swaths of the country.“We think the cadence of the schedule is just better for fans — better for players,” said Seth Waugh, the chief executive of the P.G.A. of America, which conducts the P.G.A. Championship. “Obviously it’s exhausting for them to go April, May, June, July, and then if this year you’ve got an Olympics. It’s a long grind.”The P.G.A. of America represents more than 28,000 teaching and club golf professionals nationwide who serve the recreational golfing public. More golf majors early in the year theoretically enhances overall interest in the sport. Said Waugh: “Our chance to kind of light the fire for the game in May is pretty significant.”In the end, Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters winner, thinks that tour players will be better adjusted to the new schedule after having done it a second time in 2021. He pointed to Brooks Koepka, who won two U.S. Opens and two P.G.A. Championships in a 26-month span beginning in 2017, as inspiration for his colleagues.“I look at it as a huge opportunity,” Scott said of the condensed schedule. “And I think seeing what Brooks has done from the schedule of winning a couple in really quick succession, or four in quick time — that’s what is possible if you can get on a roll.” More

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      Phil Mickelson Leads P.G.A. Championship After Third Round

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      Mickelson has a one-shot lead over Brooks Koepka entering the final round of the P.G.A. Championship, where he is bidding to become the oldest man to win a major.KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Mindful of keeping his focus as he ages, Phil Mickelson has begun meditating in his spare time. In the third round of the P.G.A. Championship on Saturday, he clearly took his new diversion to the workplace, pausing for long contemplative moments, occasionally with eyes closed, as he prepared to execute a shot.For 11 holes on Saturday, the result was a commanding, five-shot lead.But Mickelson’s composed walk around the treacherous Ocean Course at Kiawah Island would turn into roughly an hour of chaos, when it seemed he was on the verge of playing his way out of the tournament.Mickelson found the inner peace — or relied on nearly 30 years of top performances — to right the ship in the nick of time, rallying with five closing pars to take a one-stroke lead over Brooks Koepka into Sunday’s final round. Koepka had briefly tied Mickelson atop the leaderboard but bogeyed the 18th hole as Mickelson was calmly closing out his day.Brooks Koepka stalked Mickelson on the back nine, pulling even late in the round.David J. Phillip/Associated PressIf Mickelson, who turns 51 next month, maintains that advantage in the final round, he will become the oldest golfer to win a major championship, taking the record from Julius Boros, who was 48 when he won the 1968 P.G.A. Championship. A win on Sunday would be Mickelson’s sixth major victory, something only 13 other men’s golfers have achieved.“Tomorrow, I just want to stay calm enough and focused enough and visualize each shot, and if I can do that I can have the performance I want,” Mickelson said after shooting a two-under-par 70 that left him seven-under par for the championship. “It’s a great opportunity.”Mickelson blamed a loss of concentration for his missteps on the 12th and 13th holes on Saturday, which cost him three strokes and nearly derailed his round.“I slipped on a couple shots, but I’ve seen a lot of progress mentally,” he said. “That’s all significantly better. You know, just to have a chance tomorrow is the goal.”Mickelson will be paired with Koepka on Sunday, while Louis Oosthuizen, who is alone in third at five under, and Kevin Streelman, at four under, will be the second-to-last group off the first tee.On Saturday, Mickelson repeatedly stood motionless and pensive behind his golf ball. When he finally set up for his next shot, he would often have a thin, relaxed smile on his face.For a little more than the first half of his round, the absorbed deliberation led to spectacular outcomes as Mickelson birdied five holes to take a five-stroke lead on the field with eight holes to play.Nothing in Mickelson’s recent performances would have foreshadowed such a successful assault this week on the devilish Ocean Course. Since missing the cut at last year’s United States Open, his best result has been a tie for 21st. He has finished outside the top 50 in other events nine times.Mickelson’s mini-collapse on Saturday, which included knocking a tee shot under a golf cart perched on a sand dune, began on the par-4 12th hole, where he hit his tee shot into a bunker and had to chip out sideways because of an awkward lie. After his next shot landed 26 feet from the hole, he had to settle for a two-putt bogey.That lapse, after a string of pars and birdies — and after subpar rounds of 70 and 69 in the first half of the tournament — appeared to unnerve Mickelson, despite his new relaxation techniques.On the 13th tee, after Mickelson’s playing partner Oosthuizen smacked his ball into a swampy water hazard right of the hole, Mickelson did the same. Worse for Mickelson, he deemed that his tee shot had traveled entirely over the hazard and therefore he had to re-tee with a penalty stroke. While his next shot bounced safely in the fairway, it counted as his third shot and led to a double-bogey six — the first six Mickelson had recorded on any hole at the event.Mickelson’s confidence and calm were tested by a stumble on the back nine.David J. Phillip/Associated PressMickelson rallied with two pars, which offered a return to normalcy that he had needed. But then he severely hooked his tee shot at the par-5 16th and watched helplessly as it bounded into the course’s thick native grasses. The ball came to rest beside the front tire of a golf cart parked atop a sandy mound.The cart was moved, and Mickelson punched out, and he then found the green with his third shot. His 12-foot birdie putt was struck too firmly, though, and while it hit the hole, it was traveling so fast that it hopped over the cup and lipped out.Minutes earlier, on the 16th green, Koepka had rolled in a birdie putt that pulled him into a tie for the lead at seven under. His stay alongside Mickelson in first was brief, however; Koepka missed a 6-foot par putt on the 18th hole as his rival parred in.“It felt like the worst putting performance I’ve ever had,” said Koepka, who has won four major championships, and two P.G.A. Championships, since 2017. “The only way to look at it is that it can’t get any worse.”While Koepka was on his way to a bogey at 18, Mickelson, on the par-3 17th hole, the most intimidating spot on the course, drilled an impressive iron from the tee to within 17 feet of the cup. He settled for par when his birdie putt trickled just left of the hole, but on the final hole of the day, despite missing the green to the left, he nearly chipped in from 65 feet. His 5-foot par rolled around the edge of the cup but dropped in for his final par.Mickelson opened Saturday’s round by slicing his first tee shot into rough so thick his caddie, and brother, Tim could not find the ball even when standing only eight feet away. Nearby fans pointed it out. When Phil Mickelson later arrived on the scene and gazed down at his ball, he chuckled.But after a long pause with his eyes closed as he visualized the shot to come, he successfully wedged the ball onto the green and made a steadying par. Mickelson then birdied the par-5 second hole as well as the par-4 third, where his tee shot came to rest 2 feet from the hole. He added birdies on the sixth hole, where he made a 16-foot putt, and the seventh, where he rolled in his ball from 5 feet.A precise wedge from 118 yards on the 10th hole left Mickelson a 6-foot putt. He was already walking to collect it before it disappeared into the hole moments later, to the delight of the roaring gallery. More

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      Phil Mickelson’s P.G.A. Numbers: 50 Years and One More Day

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      Mickelson has a one-shot lead over Brooks Koepka entering the final round of the P.G.A. Championship, where he is bidding to become the oldest man to win a major.KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Mindful of keeping his focus as he ages, Phil Mickelson has begun meditating in his spare time. In the third round of the P.G.A. Championship on Saturday, he clearly took his new diversion to the workplace, pausing for long contemplative moments, occasionally with eyes closed, as he prepared to execute a shot.For 11 holes on Saturday, the result was a commanding, five-shot lead.But Mickelson’s composed walk around the treacherous Ocean Course at Kiawah Island would turn into roughly an hour of chaos, when it seemed he was on the verge of playing his way out of the tournament.Mickelson found the inner peace — or relied on nearly 30 years of top performances — to right the ship in the nick of time, rallying with five closing pars to take a one-stroke lead over Brooks Koepka into Sunday’s final round. Koepka had briefly tied Mickelson atop the leaderboard but bogeyed the 18th hole as Mickelson was calmly closing out his day.Brooks Koepka stalked Mickelson on the back nine, pulling even late in the round.David J. Phillip/Associated PressIf Mickelson, who turns 51 next month, maintains that advantage in the final round, he will become the oldest golfer to win a major championship, taking the record from Julius Boros, who was 48 when he won the 1968 P.G.A. Championship. A win on Sunday would be Mickelson’s sixth major victory, something only 13 other men’s golfers have achieved.“Tomorrow, I just want to stay calm enough and focused enough and visualize each shot, and if I can do that I can have the performance I want,” Mickelson said after shooting a two-under-par 70 that left him seven-under par for the championship. “It’s a great opportunity.”Mickelson blamed a loss of concentration for his missteps on the 12th and 13th holes on Saturday, which cost him three strokes and nearly derailed his round.“I slipped on a couple shots, but I’ve seen a lot of progress mentally,” he said. “That’s all significantly better. You know, just to have a chance tomorrow is the goal.”Mickelson will be paired with Koepka on Sunday, while Louis Oosthuizen, who is alone in third at five under, and Kevin Streelman, at four under, will be the second-to-last group off the first tee.On Saturday, Mickelson repeatedly stood motionless and pensive behind his golf ball. When he finally set up for his next shot, he would often have a thin, relaxed smile on his face.For a little more than the first half of his round, the absorbed deliberation led to spectacular outcomes as Mickelson birdied five holes to take a five-stroke lead on the field with eight holes to play.Nothing in Mickelson’s recent performances would have foreshadowed such a successful assault this week on the devilish Ocean Course. Since missing the cut at last year’s United States Open, his best result has been a tie for 21st. He has finished outside the top 50 in other events nine times.Mickelson’s mini-collapse on Saturday, which included knocking a tee shot under a golf cart perched on a sand dune, began on the par-4 12th hole, where he hit his tee shot into a bunker and had to chip out sideways because of an awkward lie. After his next shot landed 26 feet from the hole, he had to settle for a two-putt bogey.That lapse, after a string of pars and birdies — and after subpar rounds of 70 and 69 in the first half of the tournament — appeared to unnerve Mickelson, despite his new relaxation techniques.On the 13th tee, after Mickelson’s playing partner Oosthuizen smacked his ball into a swampy water hazard right of the hole, Mickelson did the same. Worse for Mickelson, he deemed that his tee shot had traveled entirely over the hazard and therefore he had to re-tee with a penalty stroke. While his next shot bounced safely in the fairway, it counted as his third shot and led to a double-bogey six — the first six Mickelson had recorded on any hole at the event.Mickelson’s confidence and calm were tested by a stumble on the back nine.David J. Phillip/Associated PressMickelson rallied with two pars, which offered a return to normalcy that he had needed. But then he severely hooked his tee shot at the par-5 16th and watched helplessly as it bounded into the course’s thick native grasses. The ball came to rest beside the front tire of a golf cart parked atop a sandy mound.The cart was moved, and Mickelson punched out, and he then found the green with his third shot. His 12-foot birdie putt was struck too firmly, though, and while it hit the hole, it was traveling so fast that it hopped over the cup and lipped out.Minutes earlier, on the 16th green, Koepka had rolled in a birdie putt that pulled him into a tie for the lead at seven under. His stay alongside Mickelson in first was brief, however; Koepka missed a 6-foot par putt on the 18th hole as his rival parred in.“It felt like the worst putting performance I’ve ever had,” said Koepka, who has won four major championships, and two P.G.A. Championships, since 2017. “The only way to look at it is that it can’t get any worse.”While Koepka was on his way to a bogey at 18, Mickelson, on the par-3 17th hole, the most intimidating spot on the course, drilled an impressive iron from the tee to within 17 feet of the cup. He settled for par when his birdie putt trickled just left of the hole, but on the final hole of the day, despite missing the green to the left, he nearly chipped in from 65 feet. His 5-foot par rolled around the edge of the cup but dropped in for his final par.Mickelson opened Saturday’s round by slicing his first tee shot into rough so thick his caddie, and brother, Tim could not find the ball even when standing only eight feet away. Nearby fans pointed it out. When Phil Mickelson later arrived on the scene and gazed down at his ball, he chuckled.But after a long pause with his eyes closed as he visualized the shot to come, he successfully wedged the ball onto the green and made a steadying par. Mickelson then birdied the par-5 second hole as well as the par-4 third, where his tee shot came to rest 2 feet from the hole. He added birdies on the sixth hole, where he made a 16-foot putt, and the seventh, where he rolled in his ball from 5 feet.A precise wedge from 118 yards on the 10th hole left Mickelson a 6-foot putt. He was already walking to collect it before it disappeared into the hole moments later, to the delight of the roaring gallery. More

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      Phil Mickelson Moves Into PGA Championship Lead

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      If he triumphs at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island this weekend, Mickelson, 50, will become the oldest winner of a major golf tournament.KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — As Phil Mickelson climbed a hillock to step onto the final green of his second round at the P.G.A. Championship on Friday, a shout from the crowd rose above the growing applause: “You’re not old, Phil.”Mickelson, who will turn 51 next month, smiled and flashed a thumbs up, his favorite nonverbal acknowledgment across a career dating to the early 1990s. Minutes later, when Mickelson sank a 22-foot birdie putt that put him near the top of the leaderboard just past noon on Friday, he boyishly bounded off the green, offering a thumbs up in every direction.Eight years after his last major championship victory, Mickelson shot a 69 to finish Friday at five under par, which put him in a tie for first with Louis Oosthuizen at the midpoint of the event. Two windswept days remain on the grueling Ocean Course, but Padraig Harrington, who played in Mickelson’s group in the first two rounds, saw something distinctive in his longtime rival’s deportment.“He has the bit between his teeth,” Harrington, 49, said, using an expression for a horse that cannot be stopped. “I expect him to contend, to be there at the end of the week, for sure.”He added: “He’s not here to make the cut — even 15th would be a disappointment. You know what? Even second would be a disappointment for Phil.”Louis Oosthuizen has won one major, the British Open in 2010, and finished second in each of the three others.Matt York/Associated PressMickelson has won five major championships, a total that only 13 male golfers have bettered — and just six of them did so after 1964. A victory this weekend would not only improve his standing in the sport’s pantheon, but would also make him the oldest major champion, taking the record from Julius Boros, who was 48 when he won the P.G.A. Championship 53 years ago.Harrington, who was at even par for the tournament after the second round and still in the title hunt, was asked if he had an appreciation for what Mickelson was trying to do at an age when many golfers have opted for the game’s senior tour.Harrington, who has always had a way of channeling his inner Irish poet, smiled as he replied, “Unfortunately, as you gain experience, you lose innocence.”He explained: “There is a sweet spot on the way up when you’re gaining a bit of experience and yet you have that innocence. As you get older, yeah, we have experience, but we have some scar tissue in there.”The consequence? “We can overthink things,” Harrington said.For all of Mickelson’s many talents — he got his 44th PGA Tour victory two years ago — he has rarely been able to avoid the ruinous trap of overanalyzing his own game.Consider the past few weeks, when Mickelson missed the cut at the tour’s Valspar Championship, one of nine tournaments this season in which he has failed to contend for the title.“As I’ve gotten older, I have a hard time focusing,” Mickelson said afterward. “And that’s my challenge right now. I’m trying all different things to be able to elongate my ability to stay focused, or to refocus.”Brooks Koepka is seeking his third P.G.A. Championship victory.Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesAfter Friday’s round, Mickelson revealed his new plan for sharper concentration.“I might try to play 36, or 45, holes in a day and try to focus on each shot, so that when I go out and play 18, it doesn’t feel like it’s that much,” he said.Mickelson, who is always tinkering, mentioned other tactics.“I might try to elongate the time that I end up meditating, but I’m trying to use my mind like a muscle and just expand it,” he said.Mickelson has also done something more customary for a struggling golfer, which is to put a new club in his bag. Off the tee, Mickelson has increasingly relied on an uncommon 2-wood. His brother and caddie, Tim, said the club was similar to one Mickelson had used in his last major championship victory, at the 2013 British Open.“It basically goes 20 yards short of his driver,” Tim Mickelson said. “It’s like a 12½-, 13-degree, something like that. It basically goes plenty far, but having that smaller head, you just have a touch more confidence that it’s going to go straighter.”Mickelson started Friday’s round on the back nine, where he fought 20-mile-an-hour winds, as did the rest of the field, and made the turn at two over par. But Mickelson had five birdies for a 31 on his closing nine — and he nearly eagled the par-5 seventh hole.Twenty minutes after his round was over, the excitement of the moment had not diminished.“To know I’m playing well heading into the weekend, to be in contention, to have a good opportunity,” Mickelson said. “I’m having a blast.”Hideki Matsuyama, who won the Masters last month, worked his way into contention at the P.G.A. Championship on Friday.Patrick Smith/Getty ImagesBrooks Koepka continued his consistent play Friday with a second-round 71 that left him in third place, one stroke behind Mickelson and Oosthuizen. Three other golfers were tied for fourth and two strokes off the lead: this year’s Masters champion, Hideki Matsuyama; Branden Grace; and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.Throughout Friday’s round, there was considerable movement on the leaderboard. The first-round leader, Corey Conners, bogeyed five of his first six holes and stumbled to a three-over-par 75. Will Zalatoris, the tour rookie who has ascended to 30th in the world rankings, slumped with a 74 Friday after shooting a one-under 71 in the first round. Jon Rahm, ranked third worldwide, shot a frustrating 75 to fall to three over for the tournament. Justin Rose, another pre-event favorite, matched Rahm’s 75 and was also at three over.Jordan Spieth shot 75 as well and was at four over at the tournament midpoint. Dustin Johnson, the game’s top-ranked player, continued the uneven play he has consistently exhibited since late February with a 74 that followed a first-round 76.Rallying from an opening-round 75, Rory McIlory shot 72 and was at three over par. The 2020 champion of the event, Collin Morikawa, fell to one over for the tournament with a 75 on Friday. A trio of players held their positions just below the leaders: Gary Woodland, the 2019 United States Open champion, Kevin Streelman and Sungjae Im each shot rounds of 72, which left them two under for the championship. More

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      10 Memorable Moments From P.G.A. Championships

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      The tournament’s history includes brilliant play from the stars Tiger Woods and Gary Player, and the surprising winners Bob Tway and John Daly.The fans who follow professional golf can cite plenty of memorable moments over the years from the Masters, the United States Open and the British Open.That isn’t necessarily the case with the least glamorous of the four majors, the P.G.A. Championship, which starts Thursday on the Ocean Course at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina. The P.G.A. is a major nonetheless, and since its format switched from match play to stroke play in 1958, the tournament has featured its share of heroics and dramatic finishes.Here, in chronological order, are 10 P.G.A. Championships that stand out since the format changed.Gary Player won the 1972 P.G.A. Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.Getty Images1972: Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.After bogeys on 14 and 15, Gary Player of South Africa, a future Hall of Famer, hit his tee shot into the rough on the right on 16 and then had a huge willow tree and a water hazard between him and the green.No problem.Player borrowed a chair from a fan to get a better look at what he was facing. He hit a 9-iron to within three feet of the hole, made the birdie putt, and won by two strokes over Tommy Aaron and Jim Jamieson.Lee Trevino, center, won the 1974 P.G.A. Championship at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, N.C.Al Satterwhite/American Broadcasting Companies, via Getty Images1974: Tanglewood Park, Clemmons, N.C.Consider those who were in contention during the final round: Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Sam Snead, who was 62 years old.Ultimately, it was Trevino, using a putter he discovered in a friend’s attic, who prevailed by a stroke over Nicklaus to win the first of his two P.G.A.s. After making a bogey on 17, Trevino two-putted for a par at the final hole to hold off Nicklaus. Snead, who won his first P.G.A. in 1942, tied for third.1978: Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont, Pa.The P.G.A. was the only major Tom Watson didn’t win in his career. At Oakmont, he came very close.Watson, who led by five over Jerry Pate heading into the final round, shot a two-over 73 on Sunday. As a result, he found himself in a sudden-death playoff with Pate and John Mahaffey. Mahaffey, after an opening 75, shot rounds of 67, 68 and 66. Each player made a par on the first hole before Mahaffey birdied the second for the victory.Bob Tway won the 1986 P.G.A. Championship at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.Jeff McBride/PGA TOUR Archive, via Getty Images1986: Inverness Club, Toledo, OhioWith eight holes to go, Greg Norman enjoyed a comfortable four-stroke lead. He was on track to win his second straight major, having captured the British Open in Scotland a month earlier.Norman proceeded to double-bogey No. 11. By the time he and Bob Tway, reached No. 18, they were all square. A playoff seemed likely. Tway then made a birdie when he knocked his bunker shot into the hole. Norman missed his birdie attempt for the tie.John Daly won the 1991 P.G.A. Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind.Getty Images1991: Crooked Stick Golf Club, Carmel, Ind.John Daly, an alternate who made the field when other players withdrew, shocked the sport with a three-stroke victory over Bruce Lietzke. The manner in which Daly won was a big part of the story. Hitting one booming drive after another, he became the game’s new hero.Daly, a tour rookie, was an unknown heading into the week. He would win one more major, the 1995 British Open.Greg Norman lost the 1993 P.G.A. Championship in a playoff with Paul Azinger at Inverness Club.Phil Sheldon/Popperfoto, via Getty Images1993: Inverness ClubAnother strong performance for Norman in Toledo. Another heartbreaking finish.The beneficiary this time was Paul Azinger, who birdied four of his last seven holes to force a playoff with Norman. Both parred the first hole before Norman missed a four-footer for a par on the second. Norman would have been the first player since Walter Hagen in 1924 to capture the British Open and the P.G.A. in the same year.Sergio Garcia’s memorable shot at the 1999 P.G.A. Championship at Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill.Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images1999: Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Ill.Tiger Woods won by one stroke for his second major title and first since his triumph in the 1997 Masters. However, it was the play of 19-year-old Sergio Garcia that makes this tournament so memorable; specifically, the shot he hit at No. 16.With the ball inches from a tree, Garcia hit it onto the green. He ran down the fairway and jumped in the air to see where the ball ended up.2000: Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, Ky.The first P.G.A. of the new century offered an unlikely and most entertaining duel between Woods, the No. 1 player in the world, and an unknown, Bob May.May pulled off one clutch shot after another over the final nine holes, capped by a double-breaking 15-foot birdie putt at No. 18. Woods followed with a five-foot birdie putt to stay alive and then prevailed by one stroke in a three-hole playoff. May would never win a PGA Tour event.2001: Atlanta Athletic Club, Johns Creek, Ga.David Toms had a choice to make.Leading by one shot on the par-4 18th hole, with his ball in the rough and a water hazard between him and the putting surface, he had to decide whether to go for the green or play it safe. He played it safe. It was the right choice.Toms hit his second shot short of the water, his next shot landed about 12 feet from the hole and then he made the par putt to edge Phil Mickelson by a stroke. Mickelson had just missed his birdie effort from 25 feet.2014: Valhalla Golf ClubRory McIlroy, the leader by one after three rounds, bogeyed two of his first six holes on Sunday, while other contenders made birdies. Suddenly, McIlroy was down by three.He turned things around with an eagle at No. 10 and followed with birdies at 13 and 17 to take the lead heading into the last hole. As darkness approached, Mickelson made it exciting, nearly chipping in for an eagle from off the green, which would have tied him with McIlroy. More

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      What Defines a P.G.A. Championship Golf Course? Excitement.

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      Unlike the other majors, the tournament has been moving around looking for compelling play for more than 100 years.The last time the P.G.A. Championship was held at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, Rory McIlroy entered the final round with a three-shot lead over the field, but the former P.G.A. champions Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods were giving chase.That week in August 2012 had been full of drama. Winds during Friday’s second round gusted to 30 miles per hour. A thunderstorm on Saturday had left about a third of the players having to finish their rounds on Sunday morning, including McIlroy.When the final round got underway, McIlroy shot a bogey-free round of six under par. Some players made a charge on Sunday that cut into his lead, but he won the tournament walking away.With an eight-shot buffer, McIlroy beat a stacked field that succumbed to the course. He also set a record for margin of victory, besting the one set by Jack Nicklaus when he won his fifth P.G.A. Championship in 1980.That is exactly the kind of excitement the P.G.A. of America seeks when it selects a course for its major championship. It wants a bunch of players to have a chance to win, but it’s also happy if one player puts on a master class and pulls away from everyone else.“Our philosophy is we want someone to win it, not lose it,” said Seth Waugh, chief executive of the P.G.A. of America, which holds the P.G.A. Championship and the Ryder Cup. “We want birdies and eagles and bogeys and others. We’re not trying to create a torture test. That’s not what we try to do.”The 16th hole at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina.Gary Kellner/The PGA of America, via Getty ImagesLooking back on the scores of courses that have hosted P.G.A. Championships, this tournament is more enigmatic than the other three majors when it comes to a defining template for its courses.The Masters is at Augusta National Golf Club every spring (not the fall, as it was in 2020), with all eyes on the back nine on Sunday. There players fall in and out of contention with dizzying speed as they did this year, when it looked as if the eventual winner, Hideki Matsuyama, was faltering as Xander Schauffele was surging, only to have everything flip again.The British Open is played at a fairly set rotation of courses, but the winning score is as dependent on the weather — particularly the wind — as it is on the course itself. Winning scores at the Old Course at St. Andrews, for example, have ranged widely. Woods won there in 2000 at 19 under par. Five years earlier, John Daly won at six under. The most recent Open at St. Andrews was won by Zach Johnson at 15 under par.And then there’s the golf course that hosts the United States Open. How the United States Golf Association, which administers the U.S. Open, sets up the course is often the subject of debate. Complaints are legendary: The greens at Shinnecock Hills in 2004 and 2018 were so fast and the pins were placed in such difficult locations that some of the best players in the world called the course unplayable. They included Phil Mickelson, who in 2018 hit a putt while it was still rolling to keep it on the green. (He incurred a two-shot penalty.)So what makes a course worthy of the P.G.A. Championship? It’s easy to say what the courses are not — overly tight, unforgiving or predictable — but it’s harder to say what they share in common.A look at the courses that have hosted the championship doesn’t, on its face, paint the same picture of consistency as the other major championships.A relatively short Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, N.Y., hosted the first P.G.A. Championship in 1916. Oakmont Country Club, considered by the sport to be the toughest course in America and synonymous with the U.S. Open, hosted a P.G.A. Championship in 1922, five years before its first of nine U.S. Opens. Classic courses like Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J.; Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y.; and Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., have hosted P.G.A. Championships and U.S. Opens.Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., and Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa., have hosted regular PGA Tour events as well as the P.G.A. Championships. And some now obscure courses have also held the tournament, including Seaview Golf Club in Galloway, N.J., and Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania.“The list of P.G.A. Championship courses is kind of uneven, but in a cool and fun way,” said Tom Coyne, who played golf in all 50 states, including at every U.S. Open venue, for his new book “A Course Called America: Fifty States, Five Thousand Fairways, and the Search for the Great American Golf Course.”“There are those mainstays that go back and forth between the U.S. Open and the P.G.A. like Baltusrol, Oakland Hills and Southern Hills,” he said. “Then there are those you wouldn’t even know hosted a P.G.A. Championship, like Llanerch Country Club. I had no idea it hosted the 1958 championship, and I grew up playing at a club 10 miles down the road.”Coyne said one distinguishing factor in course selection might be the history of the organizations themselves. Both the U.S.G.A. and the R&A, which puts on the British Open, are the official arbitrators of the rules of golf. Rodman Wanamaker, whose wealth came from owning department stores, was one of the founders of the P.G.A. of America, which began in 1916 as a trade organization for professional golfers.“The P.G.A. is less bound by the history of golf. You’re going to have people saying this isn’t a U.S. Open course,” Coyne said about clubs chosen to host the event, “but they’re not going to say this isn’t a P.G.A. course.”One thing that stands out is the P.G.A. of America’s having embraced Pete and Alice Dye, among the 20th century’s most important golf architects, whose courses illicit strong emotions. While some players enjoy them as a stern test of golf, others find that the courses seem to punish even good shots.Vijay Singh hits out of a bunker during the 2004 P.G.A. Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis.Jeff Gross/Getty ImagesWhistling Straits, a Dye-designed course in Kohler, Wis., got its first P.G.A. Championship in 2004. M.G. Orender was the president of the P.G.A. of America at the time. He said the selection might have seemed like a departure for the organization, but it was really a recognition of the historical standing of the Dyes.“Dye built courses that have stood the test of time,” Orender said of Whistling Straits and Kiawah. “He’s no different than Donald Ross, Seth Raynor or A.W. Tillinghast.” Those last three are considered among the best golden age architects, with courses that regularly host championships.The first P.G.A. Championship at a Dye course was Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., in 1991 — won by John Daly.If there’s one other thing that drives the location of a P.G.A. Championship, it’s the desire to share the courses among the P.G.A. of America’s 41 governing areas, which represent club and teaching pros.“When we pick golf courses, because we’re the P.G.A. of America, we represent golf at every level,” Waugh said. “Each of our sections also takes enormous pride in hosting a championship.”Several of the P.G.A. Championship courses have been at clubs that hold regular tour events, but the PGA Tour — a different entity from the P.G.A. of America — sets them up. For the P.G.A. Championship, the course can be set up however Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer at the P.G.A., wants it to be.“The reason we’re going to these venues is they’re already great golf courses,” he said before the 2019 championship at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y.His job in setting up the championship is to make “minor tweaks and suggestions,” Haigh said. “We try to bring out the great features of any golf course.”Still, Waugh stressed that the connective tissues among the courses is an exciting finish. “I can’t tell you if the winning score is going to be five under or five over or 20 under,” he said about this year’s tournament. “But the course will be fair, and it will be fun, and we hope there’s a playoff at the end.” More