Day back in the mix at a major

Defending champion Rose Zhang tumbled out of the U.S. Women’s Amateur in the first-round of match play Wednesday, with qualifying medalist Rachel Kuehn one of seven of the top eight seeds to fall.

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KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Phil Mickelson survived a wild ride Saturday at Kiawah Island with a 2-under 70 in the PGA Championship that left him 18 holes away from becoming golf’s oldest major champion. RELATED: Jordan Spieth Slam chances dwindle at PGA Championship | Leaderboard The 50-year-old Mickelson walked off the 10th green with a five-shot lead and such amazing control of his game that it was shaping up to be another runaway on the Ocean Course. Far from it. Mickelson hit one tee shot into the water and another under the tire of a cart. Brooks Koepka rattled off three birdies to tie him for the lead. The difference was the closing hole at Kiawah, easier as the wind shifted from being in the players’ faces to coming from right-to-left off the Atlantic Ocean. Koepka, in the group ahead, went just long and took three putts for a bogey and a 70. Mickelson went well long and played a flop shot, a risky shot to most everyone but him, and nearly jarred it. He curled in the 4-foot par putt to become the oldest player with a 54-hole lead in a major since 59-year-old Tom Watson at Turnberry in 2009. That didn’t end well for Watson, who lost that Open Championship in a playoff to Stewart Cink. For Mickelson, it’s an opportunity to become the oldest player to win a major. Julius Boros was 48 when he won the 1968 PGA Championship. Mickelson was at 7-under 209. For all his success in the majors — five victories, runner-up finishes in all four of them — this is only the third time he has held the 54-hole lead. He will play in the final group with Koepka, a twosome with nine majors among them. Koepka will be going for his third Wanamaker Trophy in the last four years. Koepka, shaking off effects from ligament surgery on his right knee that has limited him to two tournaments in three months before arriving at Kiawah, called the third round his worst performance of his career. Louis Oostuizen knows the feeling. He started the third round tied with Mickelson and had a long three-putt bogey. The South African never caught up, though he had his chances until missing a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-5 16th and a 5-foot par putt on the par-3 17th. He wound up with a 72 and was two shots behind. At least they have a chance. Mickelson broke away quickly with four birdies in seven holes, and he even managed to avoid losing his focus. One distraction came from the fourth fairway, when Mickelson saw a drone in the air left of the green and said to a CBS spotter, “Can you radio to the TV guys to get the drone out of the flight of my shot?” He saved par from a back bunker. He went out in 32 — Mickelson played the front nine on Friday in 31 — and was five shots clear until he showed signs of sputtering. He badly missed a 7-foot birdie attempt on No. 11. He pulled his tee shot into a bunker on No. 12 and had to play back to the fairway, leading to his first bogey of the round. And then he drove into the water on the 13th with his 2-wood, had to hit his third shot from the tee because of where he thought it crossed the hazard line, and missed a 12-footer for bogey. Oosthuizen also found the water with a big fade, dropped further up the fairway and made bogey. “Mine was on the edge,” Mickelson said on why he hit again from the tee. “I just didn’t feel good about it.” It was tight the rest of the way. Mickelson is going after his first major since the 2013 Open Championship, and the final hour made it clear that this might not be easy. But it will be loud. The gallery is the largest at a major since the pandemic — the PGA of America has said there would be 10,000 people, a number that felt far greater — and Mickelson was the object of their raucous shouting. Kevin Streelman bogeyed the 18th for a 70 and was alone in fourth at 4-under 212, followed by Branden Grace and Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa, each with a 72. Jordan Spieth matched the low round of the day with a 68, still seven shots behind and most likely too far back to contend with a dozen players ahead of him. Spieth was headed back to his rental home to flip on the TV, a rarity for him. But it’s Phil. It’s theater. “I don’t watch golf but I promise you I’m going to turn it on to watch him today,” Spieth said. “It’s pretty incredible. I have no way to relate to it, right? But I also don’t think it’s necessarily that special because didn’t he win a World Golf Championships in the last couple years? “The guy’s got four good rounds on any golf course in him, and no one would bet against that.” Mickelson has had three good ones at Kiawah Island. One more for history.

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BLAINE, Minn. – Sometimes when Brooks Koepka talks, his words seem punctuated with a rim shot. Take this week, for example, when he was asked whether he needed to do anything to keep pace with the distance gains Bryson DeChambeau made during the pandemic layoff. “I don’t need to keep up with anybody,” Koepka deadpanned, before adding, “I’m good.” Ba-da-boom! Cymbal crash! The four-time major champion isn’t the only big hitter in the 3M Open field who’s content with the length he’s hitting it. So is another former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson. And so is defending champion Matthew Wolff. RELATED: Featured Groups, tee times | Power Rankings | Expert Picks “I feel like I hit it far enough to keep up,” said Johnson, who has ranked in the top-6 in driving distance in each of the previous 12 seasons. “Like I said last week, until I feel like I can’t beat these guys with my game or when I’m playing my best, then I’ll try to change something. “I feel like right now, if I’m playing really good golf, that I can beat them. So, until then, that’s what I’ll have to go back and review.” That’s from a 21-time winner who picked up his latest victory at the Travelers Championship where DeChambeau, who is leading the PGA TOUR in driving distance at 323.8 yards, tied for sixth. Johnson is tied for 26th with an average of 306 yards. Koepka ranks 19th with a 307.3-yard average. Wolff, sixth in driving distance at 312.8 yards, felt the most heat three weeks ago at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He took a three-stroke lead over DeChambeau and Ryan Armour into the final round only to be overtaken by DeChambeau’s 65. The win capped off a string of seven straight top-10 finishes by DeChambeau, who took the following week off before missing the cut at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. DeChambeau is not at TPC Twin Cities this week but did finish T-2 here last year after Wolff eagled the 72nd hole with a 26-foot putt. Of course, that was before DeChambeau’s distance gains, as he’s picked up more than 21 yards off the tee in the last 12 months. Wolff didn’t feel like DeChambeau’s distance was the deciding factor in Detroit. Yes, the eventual winner played incredibly well but Wolff stumbled early, making a bogey at the start, and turned in 38 before “buckling down” with birdies on four of his last seven holes for a 71 and solo second. “Dustin said it best. I heard a quote from him a little bit ago saying that he doesn’t feel like he needs to hit it any farther to win,” the 21-year-old Wolff said. “… I feel like recently I’ve actually been trying to tone it down a little bit because I feel like I go hard at everything and instead of me going 110 percent at everything, I can go 90 percent and I feel like I honestly still hit the ball just as far, but I’m a little more controlled. “I don’t think that at any time soon it’s going to get to the point where people need to start hitting it ridiculously far because although it might help, I think that there are people out here who prove week in and week out that, … they’re not short, but they’re not long, but other parts of their game are so great.” Case in point, Wolff said, is Armour. He ranks 196th in Driving Distance with an average of 284.1 yards and was tied with DeChambeau for second entering the final round. The 72 he shot on Sunday left him tied for fourth — Armour’s second consecutive top-5 finish. “I was talking to him about it, about how Bryson is chasing distance and what he’s doing is unbelievable, but I was talking to Ryan about it and Ryan said he had a stretch where he chased distance and he was struggling a lot because he couldn’t keep the ball in the fairway, and that’s his game,” Wolff said. “He doesn’t hit the ball overly long, but he’s very straight, he’s a very good iron player and a good putter. He went back to that and you saw how well he did in Detroit. I think the most important thing is just to stick to what you do best in your game, not try to change your game based on other people. “Like I said, what Bryson’s doing is unbelievable. I think to be so precise with your irons and still such a good putter, but hit the ball as far as he does, it is very impressive. But I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone because not everyone can gain distance. Sometimes if you do try to gain distance, it affects other parts of your game.”

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