Andrew Landry, Scottie Scheffler ahead of the pack at The American Express

CROMWELL, Conn. – OK, he never claimed to be more powerful than a locomotive or possess the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But Phil Mickelson surely never refused to stand on the tee box and go toe-to-toe with anyone. Often to his detriment. But he was a young stallion then. Today he’s a sly fox. But after posting 7-under 63 – his best score in a PGA TOUR tournament since firing that same score in Round 4 of the Dell Technologies Championship in 2018 – Mickelson is in position to tie Walter Hagen for eighth place on the career victory list. RELATED: Leaderboard | Tee times | Morikawa’s made cut streak comes to an end | Gordon making the most of opportunity at Travelers That itself is no surprise. Mickelson remains a fiercely competitive force and as deft as ever with the short-iron game. The surprise is that he showed humility and good sense, a blueprint he once would have discarded on the way to the first tee. But knowing that Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau were his playing competitors, Mickelson took a deep breath and rejected those voices within. “I made some strides in the sense that I didn’t try to go toe-to-toe with two of the longest guys in the game,” said Mickelson. For example, the 442-yard, bombs-away, par-4 seventh. McIlroy ripped it 353, DeChambeau rifled it 359, but Phil dinked it out there with a 3-wood. He made birdie. At the dogleg right, McIlroy (321) and DeChambeau (358) took it up and over trees to get it down near the green. Mickelson carved another 3-wood around the bunkers and into the fairway, a mere 306. He made birdie. At the par-5 13th and par-4 14th, Mickelson played conservatively, again with 3-woods. Each shot found the fairway, each hole was birdied. His competitors hit drives all over the map at those holes. “There are some holes where I can open it up and hit driver,” said Mickelson. “But really, I just want to get it in play.” Knowing those words coming out of his mouth were stunning, Mickelson acknowledge, “I know, it’s not like me.” But he’s never been 50 before, never had to reign things in, never seen the likes of what DeChambeau has brought to the PGA TOUR in this restart to the 2019-20 season. “It is hard for me. .. it’s hard for anyone to imagine how straight he hits it for as hard as he hits it,” said Mickelson, shaking his head. Though he shot 67 – 132 and at 8-under is tied for ninth, five shots back, DeChambeau had Mickelson gushing. “I mean, he drove it pin-high at No. 9. Are you kidding me?” Observers may have said thing to themselves, listening to Mickelson concede he had backed off any challenge to try and match his playing competitors. But the lefthander said he learned the hard way at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera than to miss with the big boys. “I tried in LA to match it with Brooks (Koepka) and Bubba (Watson), and those guys are long,” said Mickelson. “I was trying to swing hard and I ended up missing the cut. I ended up not playing well and I learned from that.”

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DALLAS — Denny McCarthy has some loose connections to Jordan Spieth and Tony Romo, the Trinity Forest members in the local spotlight. The former University of Virginia player is on top of the leaderboard after one round at the AT&T Byron Nelson. McCarthy shot a career-low 8-under 63 on Thursday, with 10 birdies over a 12-hole stretch after an early double bogey to take a one-stroke lead over Tyler Duncan and Tom Hoge. Three-time major champion Brooks Koepka, the No. 3-ranked player in the world, was among nine players at 65. “Gives me the confidence that I know that I can shoot rounds like this,” McCarthy said. “I’ve kind of been looking for a round like this just to kind of get me going. I know I can be out here playing with the best and today kind of showed that.” McCarthy was part of the high school Class of 2011 that included three-time major champion Spieth and 2017 PGA TOUR player of the year Justin Thomas. That impressive group also produced three consecutive PGA TOUR rookies of the year: Daniel Berger (2015), Emiliano Grillo (2016) and Xander Schauffele (2017). All of those now mid-20 somethings have wins, except McCarthy, who is fully exempt on the PGA TOUR this season for the first time after winning the Web.com Tour Championship last September. His best PGA TOUR finish in his first 42 tournaments was fourth last year in the Dominican Republic at an event opposite the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. McCarthy played his first two rounds at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club then with Romo, the CBS NFL analyst and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who missed the cut there in his only two previous PGA TOUR starts. Romo, playing on a sponsor exemption as an amateur at home, had a 76 that included an opening birdie and a chip-in eagle from 66 feet at the 544-yard seventh hole . Those were his only subpar holes in a round with two double bogeys and four bogeys. “Couple of the tee shots really cost me just because they’re penal in those areas. You can’t miss them there,” Romo said. “Like I said, the separation between these guys is the ability to do it for long stretches, consistency.” Spieth had a 68 in the afternoon, when the wind picked up after mostly calm conditions for McCarthy and the rest of the morning starters at the links-style course inundated by heavy rain earlier in the week. “Given the tougher conditions this afternoon and then tomorrow morning, it’s just kind of about hanging around and trying to make something happen on the weekend,” Spieth said. McCarthy began his early round with three consecutive pars before a double bogey at the 437-yard fourth, when he had to take a penalty stroke after a wayward tee shot and eventually two-putted from 11 feet. He was still 2 over after another par at No. 5. “(The double bogey) just kind of made me more calm after that,” McCarthy said. “I came out with the mindset I wanted to be aggressive and I wasn’t, and then after that double I kind of told myself, you know, just play really, really carefree and have fun with it.” A 9-foot birdie at the 415-yard sixth was the first of five consecutive one-putt birdies, three of those under 6 feet. McCarthy needed only 22 putts, 10 on the back nine. His 10 birdies were three more than he had ever had in a tour round. “I put in some really nice sessions on the range the last couple of weeks and I didn’t come out hitting it like I wanted to,” he said. “It’s easy just to not make a committed swing, and it cost me a couple shots there. But once I was aware that I wasn’t in that aggressive mindset, kind of put me right back in and was able to get the round going.” All three of Koepka’s major wins have come since his last Byron Nelson in 2017, when the tournament was still at the Four Seasons resort before moving south of downtown Dallas last year. He had never been on the front nine before Thursday, having practiced only on the back nine Tuesday before Wednesday’s pro-am was washed out. After four consecutive birdies in the middle of his round (at Nos. 17, 18, 1 and 2), Koepka finished with three birdies and two bogeys on the last five holes. His approach at No. 6 went over the green into a bunker for a bogey, and his missed the green with his approach at No. 9, his finishing hole. “Other than that, I struck the ball beautifully,” said Koepka, the two-time U.S. Open winner who next week will defend his PGA Championship title. “Hitting it good and putting it good, it doesn’t matter. Played a lot of golf courses where I really haven’t seen the golf course and gone to play. You’ve got a yardage book.”

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