Live leaderboard: 3M Open, first round

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – A year ago, at the 102nd PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park, Phil Mickelson didn’t contend but made his way to the CBS broadcast booth, where he traded zingers with Nick Faldo and Jim Nantz. He got off a few good lines. Everyone had fun. In between then and now, Mickelson won twice on PGA TOUR Champions; lost weight; sold some Coffee for Wellness; partnered with Tom Brady in The Match 2: Champions for Charity, when the world was desperate for live sports amid the paralyzing opening months of the pandemic. Always, he entertained, even if his golf game had cooled. Now, though, he has made history. Mickelson, 50, held his nerve, kept his focus, and counter-punched a brutally difficult Ocean Course to a draw Sunday, shooting a final-round 73 to win the PGA Championship. Louis Oosthuizen (73) and Brooks Koepka (74) finished second, two back at 4 under par. The biggest question mark by the 18th hole was whether Mickelson would be able to part the sea of people who closed in after his 9-iron approach stopped 16 feet from the pin, all but ending it. He two-putted for par and hugged his caddie/brother Tim as a euphoric Kiawah erupted. Mickelson becomes the oldest men’s major winner, besting Julius Boros, who was 48 at the 1968 PGA. It was the lefthander’s second PGA title (2005); sixth major (and first since the 2013 Open); and 45th PGA TOUR victory (first since the 2019 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am). Koepka took the lead after a two-shot swing at the first hole, but Mickelson took it right back with a birdie at the par-5 second, which Koepka double-bogeyed. It was that kind of day. Although he made three front-nine bogeys, Mickelson kept bouncing back with birdies, none bigger than his hole-out from the sand at the par-3 fifth hole as the pro-Phil crowd went wild. He birdied the par-5 seventh, and the par-4 10th hole. And after making nervous looking bogeys on 13 and 14, he hit a 366-yard drive and made another birdie at the downwind, par-5 16th hole. By then he had a three-shot lead, and it was all about avoiding the big mistake coming home. At 115th in the world, 168th in the FedExCup, he came into this week as a massive longshot. Still, there were early signs that something special was brewing, and it wasn’t coffee. Those who played practice rounds with him, like Steve Stricker and Jon Rahm, could see that he was playing great. Mickelson birdied the first three holes in a match that pitted him and fellow PGA TOUR Champions pro Stricker against Zach Johnson and Will Zalatoris. The old guys won. But playing well on Tuesday and Wednesday doesn’t always mean much. “His enthusiasm is what keeps him going,” said Rahm (68, 1 under), a friend who played for Tim Mickelson at Arizona State. “At his age, has the same enthusiasm I have at 26, and he’s been doing this a very long time. I mean, he’s been on TOUR as long as I’ve been alive.” The competition has kept him going, too. Padraig Harrington (69, 2 under), who believes older players do better under pressure, when their minds can’t drift, played with Mickelson the first two rounds at Kiawah and had a sense he might not fade on the weekend. “I’d say Phil is full to capacity, but that’s where he likes to live,” said Harrington, 49. Others could only shake their head in wonder. “I’ve just obviously watched him on TV growing up,” said 24-year-old lefty Robert MacIntyre (73, 5 over). “I mean, I’ve watched him do everything in golf. That’s the reason I pushed myself to get to where I am now was watching him. What he’s doing this week is incredible.” Older players had flirted with winning majors. Jack Nicklaus was 58 when he contended deep into Sunday at the 1998 Masters. Tom Watson was 59 when he nearly won the 2009 Open Championship. Fred Couples was 52 when he led after round two of the 2012 Masters. None of them won. With just two victories in the last seven years, Mickelson admitted his mental game wasn’t what it was. He has tried dietary changes, meditation, and marathon sessions of 36 to 45 holes a day. Now, though, it’s all clicking again for one of the most entertaining players of the last quarter century. Phil Mickelson, all 50 years of him, is a major champion again.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Co-leader Matthew NeSmith nearly made a hole-in-one on the par-3 16th — and barely got a reaction from the few fans. Xander Schauffele flubbed a chip — and couldn’t help but hear a surprised spectator’s reaction. RELATED: Leaderboard | Steve Stricker turns back clock in Phoenix With attendance capped at about 5,000 at sunny TPC Scottsdale — a fraction of the usual turnout but the most for a PGA TOUR event since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — the Waste Management Phoenix Open opened Thursday with some very different sights and sounds. NeSmith started on No. 10, and went through 16 in the morning before many of the 2,000 allowed fans made their way to the stadium hole. “Probably made the quietest almost hole-in-one ever on 16,” NeSmith said. “I got about six claps there and hit it to 6 inches.” Schauffele had no trouble hearing the fan after the botched chip. “When there’s a lot of people it almost becomes white noise,” Schauffele said. “Out here, I chunked my chip and some guy was like, `Dang, he duffed it.’ I’m like, `Yeah, you’re right, I just duffed the crap out of that chip.'” NeSmith and Mark Hubbard topped the leaderboard at 8-under 63, a stroke ahead of fellow morning starters Nate Lashley and Sam Burns, and two in front of 53-year-old Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker. Hubbard had his lowest score on the PGA TOUR, and NeSmith matched his career low. NeSmith holed a 30-yard bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 13th and chipped in from 55 feet for birdie on the par-4 sixth. “I’m just trying to keep it in play, keep it in the short grass, give my irons a chance to speak for themselves, and that’s usually how I play my best golf,” NeSmith said after hitting 16 of 18 greens in regulation. He also shot 63 in November at Sea Island. Hubbard birdied the final four holes and five of the last six, tying NeSmith with a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th. “I kind of found a little something in my swing,” Hubbard said. “Earlier in the day I was kind of whipping it a little inside, so I kind of straightened my takeaway a little bit, and that kind of got things in motion.” Stricker played in the afternoon alongside European captain Padraig Harrington and Jerry Kelly, Stricker’s Madison, Wisconsin, neighbor and fellow PGA TOUR Champions player. Harrington and Kelly each shot 71. “I made some putts,” said Stricker, who turns 54 later this month. “Felt like the old Steve Stricker. I am old, but I don’t feel 53 or 4. I feel like I still have a little bit of game left in me.” Lashley played at the University of Arizona and lives in Scottsdale. “It’s nice being able to stay at home and play a course that you’re used to playing,” Lashley said. Burns had eight birdies in a 10-hole stretch. “It started with getting the ball in the right position off the tee,” Burns said. “Fortunately, we were able to attack from there.” Schauffele was at 66 with Billy Horschel, Tom Hoge, Ted Potter Jr., Keegan Bradley and Kyoung-Hoon Lee. “The greens are perfect,” Schauffele said. “If you hit a good putt today, they were going in.” Brooks Koepka had a 68. The 2015 winner at TPC Scottsdale has missed three straight cuts for the first time in his career. “I feel like I’ve been playing pretty good for a while,” Koepka said. “I just haven’t scored well. Sometimes the scoring just isn’t there.” Rory McIlroy, playing alongside Schauffele, opened double bogey-bogey and shot 70 in his tournament debut. “It was a good battle back,” McIlroy said. “Being 3 over through two isn’t ideal, especially on this golf course where you sort of need to make birdies.” Jon Rahm, the former Arizona State star, shot 68 in the afternoon. He closed with a bogey on 18. “The bogey just makes it feel so much worse than it really is,” Rahm said. Playing partner Justin Thomas had a triple bogey on the par-4 17th in a 70. He went from fairway bunker to greenside bunker to the water on the 351-yard hole.

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Former Cowboys QB Tony Romo, who missed the cut last year in his only PGA Tour start, has received a sponsor’s exemption into the AT&T Byron Nelson in May.

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