21 May 2021: Phil Mickelson is turning back the clock at the 2021 PGA Championship.
The 50-year-old, 2005 PGA Champion backed up an impressive 2-under 70 on Thursday with a 3-under 69 in Friday’s second round.
At 5-under 139, Mickelson shares the 36-hole lead with Louis Oosthuizen. The duo is a shot clear of two-time PGA Champion Brooks Koepka and two clear of 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, Branden Grace and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
Mickelson’s round started out a little bumpy on Friday. Playing the back nine first, he went out in 2-over 38 after bogeys on Nos. 17 and 18. On the front side, Mickelson quickly righted the ship, coming home in 5-under 31 thanks to five birdies.
Mickelson’s last win in a major came at the 2013 Open Championship. His last PGA Tour win was at the 2019 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. His last top-10 finish in a major was a runner-up showing at the 2016 Open Championship.
“I’m having a lot of fun, and to play well, to know I’m playing well heading into the weekend, to be in contention, to have a good opportunity, I’m having a blast,” said Mickelson. “I’m excited for the weekend. This has been a lot of fun.”
We’re only halfway to the finish line, but a win by Mickelson – who will turn 51 one day before the start of the U.S. Open in June — on Sunday would make him the oldest major champion in history.
“I don’t know if I have a great answer for you,” admitted Mickelson after being asked about his second-nine resurgence both days. “I think that I was patient even though things weren’t quite going well at the moment, and I had a few shaky strokes on 16, 17 and 18 where I was very tentative. I was able to make an adjustment on the front and ended up making some really good putts. I putted very well.”
Julius Boros currently holds that distinction. He was 48 years, 4 months and 18 days when he won the 1968 PGA Championship.
Brooks Koepka shot a 1-under 71 in the second round and is 4 under for the Championship – just one shot back of the lead held by Phil Mickelson and Louis Oosthuizen.
It was a bumpy day for Koepka who started the day 2 over through six. But he added two eagles in his next five holes to get back into red figures at the 103rd PGA Championship.
He bogeyed Nos. 15 and 17 but rolled in a solid 11-footer on the closing hole to avoid adding another bogey before the weekend.
“I would have been pretty disappointed with even par. I would have felt like I could have played a lot better,” said Koepka on how important that closing par was. “But 1 under in these conditions, it’s okay.”
The reason Koepka felt as though he didn’t play as solid as he would have liked was because of the unpredictability of the wind and how it impacted his putting. He said he thought his iron-play was solid, and he was driving it better than during the first round.
“It’s tough to putt in this wind, man,” said Koepka. “Sometimes you’re playing the wind, and sometimes you don’t. The wind might take it a little bit, but you’re also not trying to firm it, either.
“I understand everybody else is probably going to miss a few short ones with this wind, but I struck my way around this golf course (well).”
Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace and Christiaan Bezuidenhout are all inside the top five on the leaderboard heading into the weekend, with Oosthuizen – a major champion already – tied for the lead.
Oosthuizen’s 4-under-par 68 featured a clean card until the very last hole of the day when he made bogey.
“Drove it as good as I can drive it, and ball-striking was pretty good with the irons. With really windy conditions, you need that ball-striking to be on song. Probably gave myself, I don’t know — I think I hit 14 or 13 greens around this golf course in today’s conditions is pretty good,” said Oosthuizen.
Oosthuizen came into the week at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island with some form, having finished in the top 10 in his last two PGA Tour starts. He also hasn’t missed the cut at the PGA Championship in a decade, with his best finish, a tie for second, coming in 2017.
“It’ll be great to get a second major. There’s a lot of golf left, and I just feel whenever I get to a major, I sort of have my game where I want to have it, and mentally I feel very strong at a major week.”
Meanwhile, Grace and Bezuidenhout are squarely in the mix for their first major championship titles.
The pair are both at 3 under and just two shots back of the lead. Grace shot a 1-under 71 Friday, while Bezuidenhout shot a 2-under 70. Ironically enough, the pair shot opposite scores on Thursday.
Grace was 4 under through 13 and near the very top of the leaderboard, but stumbled into the house with a double bogey on 17 and a bogey on 18.
“I want to say, even with that bad couple of holes, I still got the most out of my round,” said Grace. “I’m exactly where anybody would want to be going into the weekend.”
Bezuidenhout was 3 under through 11 holes thanks to an eagle on the par-5 seventh. There was only one blemish on his scorecard, a bogey on the par-3 14th, but otherwise it was a clean day.
“Most of the holes were (steady). There was a few scramble up-and-downs, par saves here and there, but all the guys are going to have to scramble their way around here. Yeah, but most of the holes were solid holes, solid pars.
“It’s always nice to be in the top 5 heading into the weekend… it’s playing pretty hard out here, so yeah, hoping for a solid couple of days over the weekend.”
And he’s not the only South African hoping for some good vibes over the next two days.
There are 11 South Africans in the field this week and more than half of them made the cut.
“We have a great program with youngsters coming through, and it’s great seeing them up there,” said Oosthuizen. “I watched a bit this morning and seeing (Grace) and (Bezuidenhout) at this stage being 1 and 2, they’re good friends and great players, and they’ll definitely be up there this weekend.”
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