Phil Mickelson Has Impossible Task Heading into Weekend at PGA Championship

Phil Mickelson has close to no chance at winning back-to-back major titles.

For now, it appears that Mickelson is going to get the chance to play the weekend at Oak Hill Country Club, where he will attempt to get back in the hunt for the PGA Championship.

But Mickelson finishing atop the leaderboard on Sunday seems like a pipe dream after he put together another mediocre round.

Mickelson handed in his scorecard on Thursday after shooting a one-over. He shot three over throughout the first four holes of the front nine. He did get under par for the round after birdieing four holes across a six-hole stretch, but couldn’t keep his hot streak going. He double bogeyed the final hole to end his day.

Even though Mickelson shot one over in the first round, he was only a handful of strokes behind Adam Scott and Jim Furyk, the co-leaders entering Friday.

While many golfers soared up the scorecard on Friday, Mickelson didn’t help his cause one bit. He fell a few spots after shooting one over for the second straight day.

Mickelson played well to start his round, making a birdie on the par-five 13th and making par on the other eight holes on the front nine. But things started to fall apart once he made the turn. Lefty bogeyed the par-four first and also dropped a stroke on the par-four seventh.

Little mistakes plagued him all day.

Putting was Phil’s biggest issue in the second round of the major. According to the tournament's official Twitter account, he knows it’s going to take a monster third round to win the PGA Championship

Mickelson may be the second-ranked golfer on the PGA Tour this year, but there’s no way he’s going to play that well going forward at Oak Hill.

He’s shown no signs of life thus far, and even the players having the best championships would have a tough time shooting six or seven under—Webb Simpson has the best single-round score at this point (six under).

Lefty recently won the Open Championship at Muirfield after a solid performance throughout the week. He’s looking to become the first golfer to win two major titles in a season since Padraig Harrington did it in 2008.

Scott and Justin Rose still have strong chances to do that, but Mickelson definitely doesn’t.

Mickelson will enter the weekend at least nine shots off the lead. That’s far too many strokes to have a chance at a comeback.

Sure, Lefty has played statistically better on Saturday and Sunday than he has before the cut this season, but he hasn’t looked like himself at all. He just doesn’t have what it takes to win this week.

This is a guy who nearly forgot to register for the PGA Championship, as Jason Sobel of The Golf Channel reported on Wednesday. You would assume a player in the hunt would remember a thing like that. OK, that might be a bit harsh, but in reality, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference if Mickelson didn’t register.

This week at Oak Hill is not helping Lefty’s case as one of the best golfers in the world.

Mickelson has finished in the top 10 at the prior two majors this season, but will be far from the top of the leaderboard once play concludes on Sunday.

It’s bound to continue being a disappointing week from Lefty.

All statistics in this article were obtained via PGATour.com unless otherwise noted.