The CareerBuilder Challenge got underway on Thursday and a group of four players hold the lead after the first round.
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He three-putted for par on the par-5 13th and made two late bogeys to fall four strokes behind leaders Jason Dufner, Jerry Kelly, Jeff Overton and Anirban Lahiri.
Jamie Lovemark, a former high school standout at San Diego Torrey Pines High, who played at USC, was tied one shot off the lead with Colt Knost.
The 45-year-old Mickelson – a 42-time victor on the PGA Tour – has not won since the 2013 Open Championship.
The four are level at eight-under par 64 after the first round.
“Now I’m trying to work on the subtleties of fine tuning a little fade, a little draw, all the touch is starting to come back”. “I felt really good out there”, said the World No. 41.
“We rarely play this golf course with no wind”, said Kelly, whose best result in 18 previous entries in the tournament was fifth place in 2002.
“We know going in that the golf courses are going to yield some birdies, so you just try to stay patient”, Dufner said.
“The course was built to be very demanding and I think even with the equipment improvements it will challenge the professionals”, the 90-year-old Dye said Wednesday from his Florida home.
Lahiri, from India, played last week in Malaysia in the EurAsia Cup matches.
Lahiri earned his USA tour card via the Web.com developmental tour last season.
“I’ve had a lot of time off”, Mickelson said. “It was a good way to start”. “I didn’t feel like I was fighting it. I was able to kind of let it go”.
Ryan Palmer, Rhein Gibson and Si Woo Kim, at 67, were the only other players in the top 31 on the leaderboard who opened on the hard course that is back in the tournament rotation after being dropped following its 1987 debut. They look pretty good.
Yes, many of those were shot at La Quinta Country Club, though Overton and Dufner both played the Nicklaus course. The actual tournament runs from January 21-24, but various events began Monday to kick off the annual golf tournament.
Phil Mickelson, making his first start since The Presidents Cup in October, is four shots off the pace on four-under. Kelly and Lahiri played at La Quinta, the lone holdover.
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He missed birdie putts on the final three holes, the first a 5-footer.
