The 46-year-old Mickelson fired an 8-under 63 on Thursday in the opening round, coming within a lipped-out birdie putt on the final hole for a major championship scoring record.
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Sweden’s Stenson shot an excellent six-under-par to close the gap on the American and boost his chances of a maiden major success.
Mickelson is one stroke ahead of Swede Henrik Stenson, who rammed home eight birdies in a six-under 65 playing alongside Adam Scott, whose scrappy 73 left Australia’s frontrunner a distant 10 shots off the pace.
“Disappointing because I actually hit the golf ball well the last couple of days”, McDowell said.
Patrick Reed of the U.S. was unable to build on his performance yesterday as he carded a three-over 74 to join McIlroy and five other players in joint 15th position on the leaderboard.
Phil Mickelson’s magic at Royal Troon continued Friday morning, with a near ace on the par-3 8th hole. But I think I’m in really good control of my emotions and certainly the mentality you’ve got to have to navigate a test like this. Sure, there’s 36 holes of golf left to be played, and conditions are expected to remain abysmal over the weekend, but with Mickelson playing “stress-free golf”, it’s more clear than ever that age is just a number.
“I played well but some draws go your way and some draws don’t”.
He then added: “I had to do it last week, so”.
For about 30 minutes, a wild storm arrived from the Firth of Clyde, in the form of driving rain and 30 miles per hour wind gusts. I’m trying to be as optimistic as I can and I can draw on memories of being in a similar position and having won, but this is a little different.
Jason Day, the world No 1, and Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and McIlroy, the next three highest ranked players on the global order, all made the cut as did Masters champion Danny Willett.
Dane Soren Kjeldsen and Mickelson’s countryman Keegan Bradley are one shot further back after each carding 68s.
In fact, Sordet was in Scotland for the British Open at Royal Troon, but his girlfriend, Marie, and her family were in Nice and celebrating Bastille Day when a truck plowed through revelers gathered along the Riviera city’s waterfront promenade. Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Shane Lowry, Hideki Matsuyama and Louis Oosthuizen were among the golfers who failed to reach the four-over cut line during Friday’s play.
“I just tried to smile, tried to enjoy the fact that you don’t play in this often”, American Spieth told reporters of the squally showers and 20mph gusts that made conditions extremely hard for the players at Royal Troon.
Good morning! Here are the plays everybody will be talking about on Friday.
Zach Johnson (-5) – In a normal week, five shots back wouldn’t seem too exciting heading into the weekend, but when the cut covers a 14-shot spread, five shots back seems pretty good.
Former world number one Lee Westwood, four-times major victor Ernie Els and world number six Stenson were among several other players wearing black ribbons on their hats.
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“It was a three-shot par 4, which is fantastic”, Day said, smiling wryly. Everybody comes up to me and says, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ And that’s the toughest. The new anchor ban has not been kind to the former PGA Championship victor, but he looks focused and ready to contend this week.
