Phil Mickelson at PGA Championship 2016: Friday Leaderboard Score and Reaction

Phil Mickelson had to fight his way back to the cut line just to make it to the weekend at this year's PGA Championship, which he was able to do with an even-par 70 in the second round on Friday. 

Things looked dire for Mickelson on the opening hole when he fired a triple-bogey seven to start the day four over. He rebounded nicely with birdies on Nos. 3, 8 and 11 to secure his position on Saturday. 

Lefty will be playing for pride over the next two days, as it's nearly impossible to imagine he will make up the 11-shot difference between himself and co-leaders Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb. 

Here's the full leaderboard after Friday's action at Baltusrol:

There are moments when Mickelson looks lost on a golf course. They don't usually last very long, but when things go bad, they can snowball. 

The first hole was one of those cases for Mickelson, who opened his round with these mistakes, via the PGA Tour's official Twitter account:

Yet the magic of Mickelson is his ability to compartmentalize the bad moments while learning from things that work. He almost instantly turned things around, hitting par on the second hole before getting his first birdie of the day on No. 3. 

This is not the first time Mickelson has started a major in such terrible fashion, per Justin Ray of the Golf Channel:

Friday wound up going much better than that final round at Augusta in 2007, when he finished with a 77 en route to a 72-hole score of 11 over par. 

ESPN's Jason Sobel found the perfect term to describe what happened with Lefty on Friday:

Two weeks ago at the British Open was a key turning point for Mickelson in 2016. He ultimately came up short because Henrik Stenson was off-the-charts incredible on Sunday, but Mickelson had three rounds under 70 at Royal Troon after missing the cut at the Masters and U.S. Open. 

Even though the road this week has been rocky for Mickelson, the confidence he was able to build two weeks ago was among the defining moments in the 46-year-old's career. 

A birdie on the 11th hole got Mickelson's score back to one over par, which where he started the day. Here's what it looked like, via PGA.com:

Things would remain quiet for Mickelson until the 16th hole when he hit his only bogey on the back nine to push his score even with the cut line at two over. He did get that stroke back on the 18th hole with a tap-in birdie to get back to one over par. 

As long as Mickelson is hitting greens in regulation, he will be fine. He's still hovering around a 65 percent mark on greens in regulation after Friday's round, which is slightly below the average of 66.97 percent, per PGATour.com. 

This tournament has featured every version of Mickelson there is. He's always been a player unafraid to take chances, though that can work to his detriment. 

Looking ahead to Saturday, Mickelson's biggest battle will be with himself. The smart move would be to take a conservative approach, get his overall score under par and try to put up another score in the mid-60s on Sunday.