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Round 3 of the Sanderson Farms Championship take place Saturday at the Country Club of Jackson in Mississippi. Will Zalatoris, Nick Watney and Sahith Theegala share the lead with PGA TOUR Rookies Cameron Young and Hayden Buckley just a shot behind. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Sunday: 4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel), times subject to change. PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m. (Featured Groups). Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). TOURCast: Get shot-by-shot info in real time with shot tracks and video with TOURCast. TOUR Pulse: Get the PGA TOUR app to utilize TOUR Pulse, which provides users the ability to experience a mix of content, such as video highlights, written hole summaries and stat graphics on every player after every hole they complete. MUST READS Will Zalatoris shoots 61 to share lead at Sanderson Farms Championship Will Zalatoris inspired by U.S. Ryder Cup win Insider: Chesson Hadley’s big leap
Strive to be average. Phil Mickelson laughs when asked about his de facto rallying cry for 2018, at least where his historically erratic driving is concerned. “It sounds bad, it sounds funny,� Mickelson said in a recent interview with SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio, “but what a great step up that would be for me just to get to average.� True, that wouldn’t look great on a T-shirt. But the fact remains, Mickelson doesn’t need to magically transform into Dustin Johnson or Rory McIlroy, two of the best drivers in the game. Nor does he expect it. Mickelson just wants to not hurt his cause off the tee, which would mean going from a worse-than-average PGA TOUR pro to an average TOUR pro. If he can do that, Mickelson believes, he could not only win for the first time since 2013, and make his 12th consecutive U.S. Ryder Cup team. He could be due for multiple good years. As is his wont, Mickelson will come off his holiday break with a much-anticipated start at this week’s CareerBuilder Challenge at La Quinta Country Club, the Nicklaus Tournament Course, and the Stadium Course at PGA West. He won the tournament in 2002 and ’04, but hasn’t won anywhere since his stirring victory at the 2013 Open Championship. Since then, he has enjoyed a stellar run of play in the Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup, leading the U.S. to convincing victories at Liberty National (2017) and Hazeltine (2016), respectively. He has racked up top-10 finishes (five last season), and in any given round has looked perfectly capable of winning again. He just hasn’t. According to Mickelson, his driving is mostly at fault. There are two big changes, though, as he embarks on his 27th year as a pro. After parting ways with his longtime caddie, Jim (Bones) Mackay, last summer, Mickelson has hired his little brother, Tim, to take over the bag fulltime. Phil calls him “great energy,� a surprisingly good green-reader, and, as a former college golf coach, a shrewd student of the game. “It’s been very rejuvenating for me,� Phil Mickelson said. Mackay got one veto per year. Tim Mickelson will have another avenue available to him, Phil said. If and when Phil is on the verge of taking an unwise risk, Tim has been asked to say, “The math doesn’t add up.� Translation: the potential for disaster isn’t worth the potential reward. Phil’s other big change this year has been his recent switch to Callaway’s new Rogue driver, which Mickelson cites for its bigger sweet spot, and which, he believes, has been adjusted to a more optimal swing weight for him. Mickelson is a legendary equipment junkie, and hope always springs eternal at the outset of the CareerBuilder Challenge. But if anyone has been around long enough, and experienced enough success—42 TOUR wins, including five majors—to know his game, it is him. He says he spent much of his off-season in the gym, getting stronger for stability and speed, and planned to rejoin his coach, Andrew Getson, last week to start sharpening his skills for his 2018 debut in the desert.   As always, getting sharp starts with the driver. In 2013, when Mickelson won the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the Scottish Open and the Open Championship, he was .021 in strokes gained: off-the-tee, which was 102nd on TOUR. For him, though, that wasn’t terrible; at least it was a positive number. In 2011, when Mickelson won the Shell Houston Open and finished 15th in the FedExCup, he was at a respectable .140 (72nd) in that stat. But lately? Um. Well. Not great. In two starts so far this season, at the Safeway Open (T3) and World Golf Championship-HSBC Champions (T15), Mickelson is -.434 (194th) in strokes gained: off-the-tee. Last season he was at -.058 (119th) and narrowly missed qualifying for the TOUR Championship, a hiccup for which his Presidents Cup teammate Matt Kuchar teased him mercilessly. To put it mildly, Mickelson has work to do. “What’s funny is when you’re good at something, chipping, putting, wedges, distance control, all that stuff, it’s easy,� he said. “It takes me a day or two of practice to get back to kind of an elite level. But to become just an average driver when you’re not good at it, it takes a lot of work. And that’s what I’ve been spending the last few years on, really trying to figure it out. Get the swing plane right, get shallower into the ball, get the weighting of the driver right. The whole mental approach to the driver. Just to get everything dialed in just to be average.� It’s a strange rallying cry, partly because no one has ever accused Phil the Thrill of being average at anything. But maybe that’s what it will take for him to get back to hoisting trophies again. He certainly still looks like a winner, as when he went 3-0-1 to lead the U.S. at the Presidents Cup, his 12th straight, at Liberty National last fall.   There would be no better place to restart the victory count than the CareerBuilder. “I just don’t want to give away shots off the tee,� Mickelson said. “I don’t need to gain shots off the tee; I’ll gain them elsewhere. I feel like the short putting has been addressed. I feel like, and believe, that I’ve had a bit of a breakthrough with the driver. And if that happens, I think 2018 could be a remarkable year, a year where I can win multiple times.�
IRVING, Texas – It actually started with a tee shot that found the water at the 17th hole last week at THE PLAYERS Championship. Billy Horschel had just suffered the same fate as many others who’ve missed the island green at TPC Sawgrass. It had been a frustrating day, a rollercoaster second round, one that would end with his fourth consecutive missed cut in a season that was rapidly unraveling. After hitting from the drop zone, Horschel began making the trek toward the green and a looming double bogey. That’s when his caddie Josh Cassell made a remark that now seems uncannily prescient. “You know what? We’re going to go next week to Dallas, to the Byron Nelson – and we’re going to win,â€� Cassel told Horschel. Horschel didn’t dismiss the remark as merely a confidence-booster on a bad hole. He thought there was something more tangible, more significant to it. “He didn’t say it just to say it,â€� Horschel said. “He saw something.â€� On Sunday, he fulfilled his caddie’s promise, beating world No. 3 Jason Day on the first playoff hole to claim the AT&T Byron Nelson, his first victory since winning the TOUR Championship and the FedExCup in 2014. It ended unexpectedly and abruptly, with Day missing a 4-foot par putt on the 18th hole that would have extended the playoff after both players finished at 12 under in regulation. But perhaps more unexpected – at least to everybody but his caddie and perhaps the rest of their team – was Horschel’s mere presence in the playoff. He had come to the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas in the midst of his least productive stretch on the PGA TOUR since his rookie season of 2011 when he missed 14 cuts in 25 starts. His practice sessions were good, but he couldn’t translate it to competition days. He was sidelined for big tournaments, didn’t play the Masters Tournament this year, vowed he wouldn’t watch – and then couldn’t help himself. His confidence, always high, was severely tested. “The conscious mind sort of tries to knock you off your pedestal,â€� Horschel said, “but the subconscious is shown in the conscious mind, and that was trying to keep reminding myself that, hey, you’re a great player, you can do this.â€� So now it’s Friday of THE PLAYERS. Horschel has found the water at 17, has just signed for a 4-over 76, has just missed the cut in his hometown event. And yet a feeling of calmness came over him. The score didn’t reflect it, but he had just turned the corner with his game. His ball-striking – the thing he does best, the thing that fueled his FedExCup run three years ago – was finally back in rhythm. During his missed-cut stretch, Horschel’s swing had been revved up. “Amped up by 10 times,â€� his coach, Todd Anderson, told him. In the second round at TPC Sawgrass, the swing finally slowed down. It felt more like how Horschel should be swinging. It was a sense of relief. “I felt at peace,â€� Horschel said. “… I walked off the course with a sense of I didn’t feel like compared to three other missed cuts I had.â€� But did he think he would win this week? Not exactly. Only Cassell predicted that. Perhaps there were other factors at work. After all, it’s been a rather interesting stretch. Before finding the water on the 17th hole that Friday at TPC Sawgrass, Horschel was upset about a missed shot on the 13th hole when his shot bounced into the water. Horschel tossed a club at this bag after finishing the hole, and the video went viral, some people assuming he was upset or showing up his caddie. Horschel felt compelled to address the situation on his Twitter account the next day in hopes of clearing the air. It was a terrific move, as he didn’t allow the situation to fester. Then on Sunday, Australian John Senden – who lives in the Dallas area — showed up at TPC Four Seasons with his son Jacob. Senden has taken a leave of absence from the TOUR to be with his son, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. This week, players wore Rubik’s Cube patches on their caps; it’s Jacob’s favorite toy. Guess who used to caddie for Senden? Josh Cassell. In fact, Cassell went to Senden’s house on Thursday. Horschel saw Senden and his son on the range Sunday before his round and said hello. Obviously, Horschel’s win is also Cassell’s win … and by extension, maybe it’s also an uplifting moment for Senden and Jacob. Approached on Sunday after Horschel’s win, Cassell appreciated receiving words of congratulations but preferred not to discuss the win. You got the feeling he might break down emotionally. Even Horschel felt the way. His three previous wins – even the back-to-back ones that fueled his FedExCup victory – never felt like this, he said. “It’s really surreal,â€� Horschel said, adding, “I’m sort of speechless.â€� Anybody who knows Horschel knows that doesn’t happen often. Or ever. Until this week, nothing had really ever happened for Horschel in this event. In his two previous starts, he had missed the cut both times; in fact, he was a cumulative 26 over in his four rounds. TPC Four Seasons didn’t seem to like him. And he didn’t like it. But he will now go down as the last winner of the AT&T Byron Nelson at this course. Next year the tournament moves to its new location, Trinity Forest, a course Horschel has never seen but looks forward to playing. On Sunday, though, the last call at TPC Four Seasons belonged to him. “I was never a fan of this course,â€� Horschel said, “Now I am and I won — and I don’t want to leave.â€�
