If he was angry, Phil Mickelson didn't show it. He praised the
course, mentioned the balmy weather and basically let everyone know
that life is great, even if his game was anything but on
Friday.
While Tiger Woods rebounded from a rough opening round at the
Western Open and Stewart Cink jumped into contention with one of
the best performances ever at the tournament, Mickelson stumbled
with a 3-over 74. Then, he shrugged it off.
"I didn't find it frustrating," he said. "I enjoyed playing
here. We had great weather, great golf course. I just didn't play
the way I wanted to, but again, we've got two more rounds."
Woods shot a 4-under 67 during the second round Friday, a day
after struggling for a 1 over. Still, he was seven shots behind
leader Daniel Chopra, who carded a 5-under 66 to hold a two-stroke
lead over Vijay Singh at Cog Hill.
Chopra, who began the day in a four-way tie for the lead, is at
10 under. Singh shot 67 to stand at 8 under. Mickelson, who went
into the second round one stroke back, is now nine behind the
leader.
But it was Cink who impressed after a 6-under 29 on the front
nine tied the tournament's nine-hole record. His 64 for the round
was one off the mark for 18 holes. That put him at 7-under 135 and
in a tie for third with Trevor Immelman and Joe Ogilvie.
"I can't remember playing nine holes any better than that," Cink
said. "I don't think I missed a shot, and I didn't miss many putts,
either."
After shooting 71 in the first round, Cink birdied six of the
first nine holes and finished with nine in all. His only blemishes
were bogeys on 13 and 18.
Mickelson seemed to answer any questions about his psyche
Thursday when he shot a 4 under in his first tournament following
his collapse on the final hole of the US Open.
But things came apart early Friday.
Mickelson bogeyed the second, third, fourth and fifth holes and
was at 4-over 39 through the first nine. He couldn't pinpoint
exactly what went wrong, saying, "Things kind of didn't go my way
at all."
The fact that he was in Cink's group only magnified his
struggles.
"I'm happy to see him playing well because we need Stewart Cink
on our Ryder Cup team," Mickelson said. "He's one of our best
players. He needs to have a good week for not just himself but for
the team, because we really want him on that team."
While Mickelson faltered, Woods seemed to benefit from a long
practice session following the opening round.
After failing to make the cut at the US Open, Woods was in
danger again. He spent several hours on the range after his round
Thursday working on various elements — or, as he called it, "a
combo platter."
"If I didn't do a couple things right, I couldn't do the next
couple," said Woods, a three-time winner at Cog Hill.
On Thursday, his "distance control" was off. On Friday, his
putting game faltered a bit.
He started on the 10th tee and birdied Nos. 11, 13, 14, 15, and
17 but was even the rest of the way. He missed short birdie putts
on his final two holes. And he bogeyed No. 16.
"I'm pleased with the way I was able to make the changes from
yesterday to today and adapt, and hopefully ... (I) get it turned
around for tomorrow."
Singh had four birdies and no bogeys. His tee shots were a
little off on his first nine holes, but he turned that around.
"I've been really struggling for the last five months off the
tees," Singh said. "You know, it's half good and half bad right
now. I'd like to get most of it good. It's pretty hard to do that
when you're changing drivers almost every week, and that's what
I've been doing."
Chopra, whose best finish this year is a tie for fifth at Pebble
Beach in February, birdied seven of nine holes at one point,
starting with the par-4 10th.
"It's funny because I do tend to get that way," he said. "There
have been a few stretches early in the season, as well, where I'd
get it going. I think this is probably the biggest stretch, with
seven birdies in nine holes."
Notah Begay, Shigeki Maruyama, Mark O'Meara, Bob Tway and Ben
Curtis were among those who didn't make the cut.
(AP via CRI July 8, 2006)