British Open 2011 Leaderboard: What Phil Mickelson Must Do to Stay in Mix

Kathy Bissell

At the end of round one, Phil Mickelson was at even par and tied for 36th place.

Even par is a decent start in any major championship. For Mickelson, who has had only one top ten in his history at the Open Championship, this is an excellent start.   

However, Mickelson’s score may have had as much to do with the time of day he played as anything else.  For a change, he got lucky with weather on his side of the draw.  

The conditions softened when the wind dropped as Mickelson made the turn, giving him a little more leeway.  That meant Phil could be Phil, at least to some extent, since the winds had dropped and did not punish his style of play.  

Mickelson had a steady score—two birdies, two bogeys—in spite of the fact that he hit just 7 of 14 fairways.  However, he still managed 12 greens in regulation out of 14.  His second shots and his putting were the difference for him.  

On the PGA Tour, in 2011, Mickelson is 130th in putting from inside five feet, 61st from five to ten feet and 69th from 10 to 15 feet.  It gets better from 20 to 25 feet, where he is 35th.  So, the fact that he has had putting woes is not a surprise to anyone.

The fact that he made par saves and did not three-putt any greens were keys to his even-par round today.   

Perhaps his announced strategy is working.

“I'm trying to come here and play the way links golf should be played, along the ground, as effectively as I can, and really enjoy the challenge that it brings, because again, it's a different style of play,” he said on Tuesday. “We can't play through the air. We have to accept what the ground gives us when we have conditions like we had today.”

Mickelson was off the first tee at 2:21 local time, and that time difference with the weather difference gave him an advantage over the early starters like Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy, who faced cold and a raw wind.   

“I was going Seve (Ballesteros) colors today, navy, white shirt, white shoes, but it was cold, so I put my wets on,” Poulter said.  

Rory McIlroy, who was two groups later than Poulter, also had the tough conditions.  Like Mickelson, McIlroy bogeyed the first hole. 

“I felt like, especially after the start, bogeying two of the first three holes, that playing the last 15 in 1-under par was a pretty good effort,” McIlroy said.

What Mickelson needs to do tomorrow is, first of all, get lucky with the weather.  Then he needs to repeat his putting performance from round one. He needs to continue to birdie the par fives, the seventh and the 14th, which he did today.  

Summary of Mickelson’s round:

Mickelson was in the rough off the first tee. After extricating himself from the fescue, the result was bogey.  At the fourth, he saved par with a 10-footer.  At the eighth, he lagged a 40-footer to two feet for a par. 

On nine, he hit the fairway with driver, but his second shot flew the green.  Yet, he was able to scramble for par.  He finished the front at even with one birdie and one bogey.  

At the 10th, his putt took a look at the hole but passed it by.  That would have put him -1. 

Eleven was another bogey.  He was in a greenside bunker and took two more after that to get the ball in the hole on the par three, putting him at +1 for the round. 

On the 12th, Mickelson’s drive was into the fescue off the tee.  But it was far enough to give him just 140 yards to the green, wedge distance, and he found the putting surface.    

At the 14th, Mickelson’s second shot, a fairway wood, reached the green, giving him a 20-25 footer for eagle.  He had to settle for birdie. That put him back to even.

On the 15th, his second shot, a 7-iron, landed in the back of the green.  Two putts, par.

On the 16th, where Dustin Johnson had a hole-in-one, Mickelson was middle of the green, leaving him with an extremely long and unlikely birdie putt.  Again, two putts, par.

At the 17th, he had to make a six-footer to save par. 

On the final hole, he hit right, and his second shot was out of the greenside rough, over the bunker and within six feet of the hole.  He made it for a par and finished at even.

Mickelson's scorecard: 

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	tot
1	5	4	3	4	4	3	4	4	4	35	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	35	70
Par	4	4	3	4	4	3	5	4	4	35	4	3	4	4	5	4	3	4	4	35	70

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials from the USGA, PGA Tour or PGA of America..