After a week dominated by who is – and, more notably, isn’t – going to Rio next month for the first Olympic tournament in 112 years, it was finally time to put the focus on the sport’s oldest major championship.
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‘To have played this round and walk away feeling like I want to cry is a very awkward feeling’.
History beckoned for Mickelson when he played a sumptuous approach to 15 feet at the 18th hole and the American held his head in his hands in stunned disbelief when the putt lipped out.
As we all know, Mickelson didn’t make the putt, coming agonizingly close.
Mickelson’s magical eight-under display was still a course record and matched the best-ever score at a major.
Not that things got any easier once morning wind gave way to afternoon gentleness, because it wasn’t until Game 23 when Richard Sterne made the day’s first birdie at the 11th.
Current champion Zach Johnson is well placed to challenge on -4 but his day could have been so much better had it not been for bogeys on the final two holes. 1 and 2, and an 8-footer on the treacherous par 3 eighth “Postage Stamp” hole.
The 29-year-old Indian star, shot two-under 69, but the round at Royal Troon needed no less than 33 putts.
Phil Mickelson joined Patrick Reed at 5-under par with a long birdie putt on the 10th hole, and he remains bogey-free through 12 holes.
He had never shot lower than 66 in the Open before, with his last such score sealing victory three years ago. Rory McIlroy was the last to accomplish that feat, doing it in 2010.
He took one shot back with a birdie on the third and another with a second birdie on the fourth. “It breaks to the left and then straightens out…I don’t know what to say”. He made that birdie, and added a fifth on the ninth – meaning as he finished his front nine, Montgomerie was tied for the lead, on three under.
“I was trying to do the grand slam all at once but I missed it [at the US Open] so maybe I could get one on the US PGA”, said the South African, who also has an albatross at Augusta on his record from 2012. On a day of glorious sunshine in south-west Scotland, the inward nine into the breeze blowing from the Firth of Clyde made the closing holes more challenging.
Sandy Lyle and Steven Bowditch both took nine on the 11 while Danny Lee was one of a number of players to rack up a seven. 13 and 14, where he posted a double bogey and a bogey, respectively.
“It doesn’t really matter to me”.
However, U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson finds himself eight shots off the pace after he could only manage a level-par 71.
The 53-year-old Scot, playing in perhaps his last Open, caught a buried lie in pot bunker and began with a double bogey.
Andy Sullivan and Soren Kjeldsen also finished their rounds on 67, with Keegan Bradley joining the crowded group on four under par in his pursuit of a second major title.
Just behind Reed and Kaymer were a shifting cast of players who kept threatening and the falling back throughout the day, making four-under a bar that was hard to clear.
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The weather forecast is daunting for Friday, which should create chaos on the boards tomorrow, but with the course soft, there should be plenty of birdies for those whose iron play is accurate.
