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      Tiger Woods Set to Play the PNC Championship With His Son

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      The golfer, who is still recovering from a serious car crash in February, has not competed in a tournament since he and his son, Charlie, last played in the family team event a year ago.Last week, Tiger Woods was emphatic that he would never again be a full-time player on the PGA Tour because of the serious leg injuries he sustained in a high-speed car crash in February. But Woods conceded that he could “play a round here and there,” which he called, “a little hit and giggle.”Woods is not waiting long to make an informal, and public, return to a golf course. On Wednesday, he announced he would play in a family team tournament with his son, Charlie, on Dec. 18 and 19. The event, the PNC Championship, has a small limited field — it was once called a father/son tournament — and will be contested at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla.“Although it’s been a long and challenging year,” Woods, whose doctors considered amputating his right leg 10 months ago, wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “I’m very excited to close it out by competing at the @PNC Championship with my son Charlie. I’m playing as a Dad and couldn’t be more excited and proud.”Although it’s been a long and challenging year, I am very excited to close it out by competing in the @PNCchampionship with my son Charlie. I’m playing as a Dad and couldn’t be more excited and proud.— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) December 8, 2021
      Woods, who turns 46 on Dec. 30, has not played in a tournament of any kind since he entered the 2020 PNC Championship with Charlie, who is now 12, roughly a year ago. The duo finished seventh. Shortly afterward, Woods had a fifth back surgery that sidelined him for the next few months.The PNC Championship’s 36-hole team format should make it easier for Woods to avoid placing too much stress on his lower right leg, which was reconstructed by doctors using a rod, screws and pins during emergency surgery following his crash outside Los Angeles on Feb. 23. Each player in a pairing will begin a hole by hitting from the tee and players will then pick which tee shot is most advantageous to play. Both players hit a second shot from that spot, a process that is repeated until the hole is finished.Importantly for Woods, there will be only two 18-hole rounds rather than the usual four rounds on the PGA Tour and players can use golf carts driven within a few feet of a player’s ball. On the tour, golfers are required to walk.The players will also play from different sets of tees, which means Charlie Woods will play from the forward tees and often make his father’s tee shots, which will be struck from much farther away, unnecessary. While Tiger Woods was hitting golf balls at a practice range during last week’s World Hero Challenge, a PGA Tour event he hosted in the Bahamas, he also made several jokes about how his shots were traveling about half the distance they once did because he lacked strength and the nerves in his right leg were diminished. From 2018 to 2020, Woods averaged about 299 yards in driving distance during tour events.In last year’s PNC Championship, Woods sometimes had his son hit first — from tees that could be dozens of yards closer to the hole — and if Charlie’s tee shot was well-positioned on or near the fairway, Woods did not bother hitting his tee shot. The format, known as a scramble, could conceivably put Woods in a position to primarily hit less physically demanding shots struck with irons, wedges and a putter throughout his rounds. The format would also permit Woods to decline hitting any shots from a challenging, uneven lie or from daunting terrain that might put added force on his right leg.NBC will televise both rounds of the PNC Championship.Woods’s appearance on a golf course next week will likely spawn conversations about when he might return to the PGA Tour. The Masters Tournament, which he has won five times, is only four months away. But last week Woods cautioned against speculation about when, or if, he will return to elite competitive golf.“I haven’t proven it to myself that I can do it,” Woods, who has won 15 major golf championships, said. “I can play a par-3 course and I can hit a few shots. I can chip and putt, but we’re talking about going out there and playing against the world’s best on the most difficult golf courses under the most difficult conditions.“I’m so far from that. I have a long way to go to get to that point. I haven’t decided whether or not I want to get to that point. I’ve got to get my leg to a point where that decision can be made.”Last year, however, Woods talked repeatedly about how much it meant to him to be able to play with Charlie.“We can do this together for a lifetime,” Woods, who was taught the game by his father, Earl, who died in 2006, said. “I like the thought of having that opportunity to play with him for as long as I live.”Several of Woods’s colleagues from the PGA Tour in the previous 25 years will join him in next week’s field, including his good friend Justin Thomas and his father and coach Mike Thomas; Jim Furyk and his son, Tanner; Henrik Stenson and his son, Karl; and the multiple major champion turned broadcaster Nick Faldo and his son, Matthew. Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked women’s golfer, will also make her debut in the event playing with her father, Petr. More

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      Lee Elder, Who Broke a Golf Color Barrier, Dies at 87

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      In his prime he played in a league for Black players, but in 1975, at 40, he became the first African American to take part in the Masters tournament.Lee Elder, who became the first African American golfer to play in the Masters tournament, a signature moment in the breaking of racial barriers on the pro golf tour, died on Sunday in Escondido, Calif. He was 87.The PGA Tour announced the death but provided no other details.When Elder teed off at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia in April 1975, he was 40 years old. Years earlier, in his prime, he played in the United Golfers Association tour, the sport’s version of baseball’s Negro leagues. The PGA of America, the national association of pro golfers, accepted only “members of the Caucasian race,” as its rules had spelled out, until 1961.Elder was among the leading players on the UGA tour, which over the years also featured such outstanding golfers as Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford, who was the first Black player on the PGA Tour, and Pete Brown while offering comparatively meager purses.Elder first played regularly on the PGA Tour in 1968, and that August he took Jack Nicklaus to a playoff at the American Golf Classic in Akron, Ohio, losing in sudden death.“The game of golf lost a hero in Lee Elder,” Nicklaus said in a statement on Monday.The Masters, played annually at Augusta National, had no clause barring Black golfers, but unofficially it remained closed to them. With the rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, however, it came under pressure to integrate its ranks.The tournament eased a bit in 1971 by announcing that any player who subsequently won a PGA Tour event would automatically qualify for it. Elder came close, finishing second in the Texas Open and losing a playoff to Lee Trevino in the Greater Hartford tournament in 1972.But those performances did not persuade the Masters to bend its new rule and accord Elder a spot. Elder broke through after capturing the 1974 Monsanto Open at the Pensacola Country Club in Florida, where six years earlier he and other African American PGA Tour members playing there had been refused entrance to the clubhouse. They had to dress in a parking lot.That victory finally brought the 1975 Masters invitation. In the run-up to the tournament Elder received death threats. He rented two houses near the Augusta National course and moved between them as a security measure.When he teed off for his first shot, a huge crowd lined the fairway. “I remember thinking, ‘How am I going to tee off without killing somebody,’” he told The New York Times in 2000, wryly reflecting on the pressure he faced.Elder at the Masters in 1975. Black employees of the Augusta National Golf Club lined the 18th fairway when he played it. “I couldn’t hold back the tears,” he said.Leonard Kamsler/Popperfoto via Getty ImagesHis shot off the first tee was straight down the middle, but he ended up far back in the field in the first two rounds, shooting 74 and 78, and missed the cut to continue to play through the weekend by four strokes. He received a fine reception from the galleries, though.“The display from the employees of Augusta National was especially moving,” Elder told Golf Digest in 2019. “Most of the staff was Black, and on Friday, they left their duties to line the 18th fairway as I walked toward the green. I couldn’t hold back the tears. Of all the acknowledgments of what I had accomplished by getting there, this one meant the most.”Elder played in the Masters six times, his top finish a tie for 17th place in 1979. He won four PGA Tour events and finished second 10 times, playing regularly through 1989 and earning $1.02 million in purses. He also played for the U.S. team in the 1979 Ryder Cup. He joined the PGA Senior Tour, now the Champions Tour, in 1984 and won eight times, earning more than $1.6 million. He won four tournaments overseas.Elder and his first wife, Rose Harper, created a foundation in 1974 to provide college scholarships for members of families with limited incomes. He promoted summer youth golf development programs and raised funds for the United Negro College Fund.In 2019, he received the United States Golf Association’s highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, named for the co-founder of the Masters and presented for outstanding sportsmanship.Elder in November 2020 at the Augusta club after he was named an honorary starter for the 2021 Masters.Doug Mills/The New York TimesRobert Lee Elder was born on July 14, 1934, in Dallas, one of 10 children. His father, Charles, a coal truck driver, was killed during Army service in Germany in World War II when Lee was 9. His mother, Almeta, died three months later.Elder caddied at an all-white club in the Dallas area, earning tips to help his family, then went to Los Angeles to live with an aunt. He worked as a caddy again and dropped out of high school to pursue a career in golf, at times touring the Southwest as a “hustler,” winning private bets against players who had no idea how good he was.At 18, after playing against the heavyweight champion Joe Louis, an avid golfer, Elder became a protégé of Rhodes, who was Louis’s golf instructor.Following two years in the stateside Army, Elder joined the United Golfers Association tour in 1961. In one stretch of 22 consecutive tournaments, he won 18.Gary Player, the South African native and one of golf’s greatest international golfers, invited Elder to play in his country’s Open and PGA championships in 1971, having received permission from the prime minister. Black people mingled with white in the crowd at what became the first integrated golf tournament in South Africa since the adoption of apartheid in 1948.Elder’s survivors include his second wife, Sharon, with whom he lived in Escondido. He returned to Augusta National in 1997 to watch Tiger Woods win the Masters by a record-setting 12 strokes, becoming the first African American golfer to win one of golf’s four major tournaments.Elder with Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, right, during the opening ceremony of the 2021 Masters tournament in April. They were honorary starters. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters“Lee Elder came down, that meant a lot to me,” Woods said afterward. “He was the first. He was the one I looked up to. Charlie Sifford, all of them. Because of them, I was able to play here. I was able to play on the PGA Tour. When I turned pro at 20, I was able to live my dream because of those guys.”On April 8 this year, Elder became the first Black player to take part in a decades-old Masters tradition, joining Nicklaus and Player as that year’s honorary starters, who strike the tournament’s ceremonial first shots. Though he brought his clubs with him, arthritis in his knees left him without enough stability to take a shot.But he received a standing ovation. The ceremony, he said, “was one of the most emotional experiences I have ever been involved in” and “something I will cherish for the rest of my life.”Alex Traub contributed reporting. 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’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 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 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