Phil Mickelson makes a confident start at The Barclays
The Barclays’ kick off has marked the start of The US PGA Tour Playoffs to pave the way for the month-long pre-Ryder Cup swing that consists of four tournaments.
Phil Mickelson, who barely made it to the top eight players who received automatic qualifications for the US Ryder Cup team, made a confident start to his campaign at the Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale.
He got off to a bumpy start on the back nine of the course and recorded two birdies and two bogeys on the first four holes that he played.
Afterwards, he brought consistency in his game and added another three birdies, to tie for the 14th position, with a three-under par score in the opening round on Thursday.
“It was a nice start to this event. Obviously I didn't light it up, but I played a good, solid round,” the four-time major winner said. “I shot 3-under, and it gets me in a good position starting the tournament”.
“Today was really close to being good. I didn't drive it as well as I've been driving it these last 10 days or so, and I kind of clicked on the last shot,” he added. “If I can get that going tomorrow and get the ball in the fairway off the tee, which I've been doing now of late, I really think there's an extra low round out here”.
He now sits four strokes behind the leader Padraig Harrington, whose impressive six-under par score on the back nine helped him take a one stroke lead over Nick Watney and Brian Harman.
According to Mickelson, the course conditions were really supportive to the participants, especially when the winds were almost ignorable. He stated that one could easily post a low score if they keep the ball on the fairway after driving the ball off the tee.
Moreover, he admitted that the front nine of the course was quite easy compared to the back nine. He believes that once can benefit from the presence of two par five holes – the fourth and seventh hole – and register a good score on the leaderboard.
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