Tour News
Breaking Down Mickelson’s U.S. Open Round 1
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Phil Mickelson is accustomed to bold plays. Lefty is also a devoted family man. Given these facts, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the golfer elected to do the following: Leave Merion, the site of the U.S. Open, on Monday to fly home to San Diego to practice in better weather and attend his daughter’s eighth-grade graduation. Mickelson then returned to the course early Thursday morning ahead of his 7:11 a.m. ET tee time.
The unorthodox preparation for the second major of the year paid off through the first round. Mickelson, who hasn’t finished an opening round of the U.S. Open under par since 2009, fired an impressive 3-under 67 Thursday. Phil was the tournament leader when he signed his scorecard for the three-under opening round.
Here’s Phil’s full jet-setting itinerary:
- Left Merion Monday afternoon by private jet for San Diego
- Departed San Diego at 11:15 p.m. ET (8:15 p.m. PT) Wednesday
- Touched down in Philadelphia at 4:30 a.m. ET
- Arrived at Merion at 5:37 a.m. ET
- Teed off at 7:11 a.m. ET at No. 11
Mickelson opened his round with a bogey at the 370-yard par-4 No. 11. He followed the blemish with pars at No. 12 and got a stroke back with a birdie at the 103-yard par-3 No. 13. The left-hander then added two pars before the suspension of play at 8:36 a.m. ET.
As Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press tweeted regarding the situation:
Phil being Phil. Flies home to San Diego pre-Open. Returns 3 hours before tee time. Has 5 wedges and no driver in bag. Even thru 5. #usopen
— Doug Ferguson (@dougferguson405) June 13, 2013
Of course, Phil isn’t flying coach and reportedly has a bed on his private plane. Given the suspension of play, he looks like a genius and likely snuck in a couple of hours of sleep. It seems like Mickelson accurately predicted the weather and what it would mean for him. He can add amateur meteorologist to the list of hats he’s worn this season, along with amateur financial planner and club designer.
After the restart at 12:10 p.m. ET (and more importantly, some sleep), Mickelson parred Nos. 16 and 17, after a quality tee shot on the 246-yard par-3 No. 17. Following a well-struck approach shot at the lengthy par-4 No. 18, Mickelson took two putts for another par and an even-par opening-eight (strange, I know).
A birdie on No. 1 (his ninth of the day) moved Mickelson to one under for the tournament. Fantastic par saves at the Nos. 2 and 3 (his eighth and ninth) — one from a bunker, one from the deep rough — followed.
Phil averted disaster on the difficult No. 5 when his drive stayed out of a creek after going wayward left, eventually saving par on a hole where he was staring bogey or worse in the face. On the No. 6 (his 14th) Mickelson got up and down from a difficult position in the bunker to remain at one-under par for the tournament.
Another birdie at the par-4 No. 7 moved Mickelson into the lead, and when Phil poured in a lengthy birdie putt at the par-3 No. 9, he moved to three under for the day, before parring No. 10 (his 18th of the day) for an opening-round 67.
Given the success of his method, Phil may want to consider flying home for dinner tonight.
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Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2024 3M Open
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GolfWRX is on site this week at TPC Twin Cities for the 2024 3M Open for the penultimate event of the PGA Tour’s regular season.
The photos are flying in from Blaine, Minnesota. We’ve already assembled general galleries and a fresh Tony Finau WITB.
Check back throughout the week for more photos!
General Albums
- 2024 3M Open – Monday #1
- 2024 3M Open – Monday #2
- 2024 3M Open – Tuesday #1
- 2024 3M Open – Tuesday #2
WITB Albums
- Tobias Jonsson – WITB – 3M Open
- Keith Mitchell – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Tony Finau – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Maverick McNealy – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Tom Hoge – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Mac Meissner – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Robert Streb – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Sahith Theegala – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Sam Burns – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Santiago de la Fuente – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Billy Horschel – WITB – 2024 3M Open
Pullout Albums
- Ping putters – #1 – 3M Open
- Ping Putters – #2 – 3M Open
- TaylorMade Spider Tour S broomstick putter – 3M Open
- Odyssey Broomstick #7 putter – 3M Open
- Bettinardi putters – 2024 3M Open
- New EyeLine training aid – 2024 3M Open
- Sam Ryder’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 3M Open
- Odyssey putters – 2024 3M Open
- L.A.B. Golf putters – 2024 3M Open
- Tyler Duncan’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 3M Open
- Zac Blair’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 3M Open
- Paul Barjon – PXG putter – 2024 3M Open
See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.
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Equipment
Collin Morikawa’s pre-Open equipment adjustments
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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.
Three years later, Morikawa has once again changed his irons to deal with the unique Scottish turf.
Morikawa has been using TaylorMade P730 blade short irons (7-PW), P7MC mid irons (5-6) and a TaylorMade “Proto” 4-iron with a cavity-back construction this year.
However, he switched into a new set of TaylorMade P7CB irons (5-PW) before finishing T4 at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, to go along with his familiar “Proto” 4-iron. TaylorMade’s P7CB irons are the finalized versions of the “Proto” 4-iron that Morikawa has been using, except they remain unreleased to retail.
According to TaylorMade, Morikawa switched into a full set of the new P7CB irons to aid with turf interaction, just like he did prior to his 2021 Open victory.
Morikawa is honing in on his winning formula overseas.
Morikawa also has switched from his usual TaylorMade Qi10 5-wood to a lower-launching TaylorMade P790 3-iron equipped with a Project X HZRDUS 105 Hybrid shaft. The loft of the club has been bent down to 19 degrees.
TaylorMade says that Morikawa switched into the new driving iron In order to “have an option to hit something lower that will roll out in the fairways.”
Head over to PGATour.com for the full article.
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Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2024 Barracuda Championship
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GolfWRX is on site this week for the PGA Tour’s only Modified Stableford event, the Barracuda Championship.
We have plenty of galleries from Truckee, California, assembled for your viewing pleasure, so let’s get to it.
General Albums
WITB Albums
- Barclay Brown – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Ryan Brehm – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Marcel Schneider – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Pat Steffes – NorCal PGA Section Match Play Champ – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Mitchell Schow – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Ricardo Gouveia – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Todd Clements – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Gunner Wiebe – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Oliver Wilson – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Louis De Jager – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Mats Ege – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Andrew “Beef” Johnston – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Mike Lorenzo-Vera – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Jeong Weon Ko – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Alex Fitzpatrick – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Manuel Elivra – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Ian Gilligan – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Fabrizio Zanotti – WITB – 2024 Barracuda Championship
Pullout Albums
- TaylorMade putter covers – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Kevin Dougherty’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Camilo Villegas’ custom Cameron putter – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Cameron putters – 2024 Barracuda Championship
- Oliver Wilson’s 1 off Odyssey putter – 2024 Barracuda Championship
See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.
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Ben Jones
Jun 14, 2013 at 12:08 pm
When is Phil’s driving 3 wood going to be available for purchase? Also, what loft is this three wood? Way to go Phil!!!
Thanks!