Aging superstar Phil Mickelson, with five major titles to his credit, took a one-stroke lead today into the final round tomorrow of the PGA Championship. Being played on the PGA Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, South Caroline, the PGA Championship is one of the four coveted major championships in professional golf in the world. (The others are the Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open.) Brooks Koepka, who has won four majors much more recently, is left-hander Mickelson’s closest pursuer. Both will play together tomorrow as the last pairing in the last round of the championship.
Mickelson started today tied for the lead at five under par total, 139. The fifty-year old did not look his age as he bolted ahead of the pack like a racehorse out of the gate. After ten holes, Phil had a five-stroke lead on the field. But mid-way in his back nine, he made his first bogey after his last 20 holes in the tournament and then a double bogey. It was looking like Phil might be up to old tricks, in which he sometimes has collapsed with the lead. But he hung in there to save the day with a two-under par 70 for a 209 total after 54 holes of play.
Koepka, still recovering from knee surgery, was his usual self in the majors today–looking like a world beater from tee-to-green. But both he and the other two main leaders, which included sweet-swinging Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, had trouble putting on the back nine. And they left many putts short of the hole, sometimes several feet. As they say in putting, “never up never in.” Funnyman Lee Trevino used have a different version of that saying. He used to say, “99 percent of all putts left short never go in.” But the Supermex never, ever explained the math on that one.
In Koepka’s interview after the round today, he mentioned that the practice putting green was faster than the greens on the course. That happens occasionally in golf tournaments, and it is the main cause of competitors leaving their putts short on the course. The reason is that the practice putting green gets more traffic than the greens on the course, and that extra soil compaction caused by boots on the ground (golf shoes of course) speeds up the putting surface.
When I used to play the PGA Tour, and that would be the situation, I sometimes wished I could poor a big bucket of water around one of the holes on the practice putting green and only putt there as I prepared to tee off in my round. Water, of course, slows the putting surface.
The PGA Ocean Course at Kiawah Island is nestled beside the Atlantic Ocean. It was designed by famed golf course architect Pete Dye. I knew Pete, and he was such a master at his craft. This is a dunes course according to the tradition of golf in the old country, especially in Scotland.
Other major winners are right behind these three, and they all are separated by about one stroke each. They include Hideki Matsuyama, Bryson DeChambeau, and Gary Woodland. This lot of major champions somewhat tightly grouped on such a challenging golf course could prove to be a real treat for golf fans tomorrow. Plus, the oldest major champion winner has been Jack Nicklaus at 46 years of age. So, if Mickelson wins tomorrow, it would be quite a new golf record at 50 years of age.
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