Day ‘obsessed’ with new swing, leads Wells Fargo

LA QUINTA, Calif. - Phil Mickelson teed it up Friday at The American Express for his 2,201st career PGA TOUR round. For the first time in his TOUR career, he carded 18 consecutive pars. Mickelson, 50, posted a second-round, even-par 72 at PGA West (Pete Dye Stadium Course) to follow an opening-round, 2-over 74 at the Nicklaus Tournament Course. The tournament host finished seven strokes outside the cut line. "For that to be the first time, it's really shocking," said Mickelson of stringing 18 pars for the first time on TOUR. "Surprising, because I really try to hit fairways and centers of the greens and just make easy pars. "Looking at the scores, you're going to say, ‘Gosh, you played 2-over par, pretty easy courses, pretty poor start.' But I feel like there were a lot of good things to take from the week, even though the scorecard's not going to show it." Making his first TOUR start since the Masters in November, Mickelson hit 13 of 18 greens Friday but failed to convert on numerous birdie looks. The artist known as ‘Phil the Thrill,' though, also saved par in heroic fashion on multiple occasions, en route to becoming the first player to card 18 pars in a round at PGA West (Pete Dye Stadium) since 2016. His second shot on the par-5 fifth found the water. He dropped 76 yards away, wedged to 16 feet and drained the putt. After finding a greenside bunker with his approach on the par-4 12th, his third shot held up in the fringe, 15 feet short. He saved par once again. One of Mickelson's best birdie looks came at the par-4 18th, his final hole of the day. After a 197-yard approach to 9 feet, though, his birdie putt slid by. He nailed the 4-foot comebacker to polish off a scorecard unlike any he has authored in a nearly three-decade professional career. Mickelson will regroup and head to his hometown of San Diego for next week's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. "I'm driving the ball well; I'm hitting a lot of good shots," Mickelson said. "My putting needs some work, but I have been putting well for a long period of time, so I don't feel as though it's going to require a lot of effort. "If you look at the scorecard, it's pathetic. I'm not denying that. But I think that it's a little bit closer than it looks."

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He doesn’t remember the street, only that he ran about 200 yards around the corner. In Nick Taylor’s hand was something he’ll never forget, though. The Olympic Torch. Taylor was one of an estimated12,000 Canadians who helped take the eternal flame that had been lit at Mount Olympus in Greece across his homeland in advance of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The route took 106 days, and Taylor’s run lasted just minutes. “It went by really fast,â€� he says. But he carried the torch just five days before the opening ceremonies through his hometown of Abbotsford, which is about two hours from Vancouver. Some people walked. Taylor remembers jogging when he got his turn. “We were in kind of a shuttle bus,â€� he says. “There were maybe 4 or 5 different torchbearers and we all had our own torch. We only did about 200 meters and you passed it off and it keeps going. “There were a lot of family and friends there so it was pretty cool.â€� Taylor, who was playing golf at the University of Washington at the time, was nominated to carry the torch by an Abbotsford legislator. But as the run drew closer, there was a bit of a logistical issue – Taylor competed in a tournament in Hawaii the previous week. He was slated to get back to Seattle at 9:40 p.m. on Saturday and was scheduled to run at 7 a.m. on Sunday in Merritt, which was about 4 hours away. At the last minute, though, Taylor’s run was switched to his hometown, which was about two hours closer and the last stop of the day. “I still have the torch,â€� Taylor says. “It was not crazy heavy. I would say it was about 3 feet high, maybe 15 pounds. “You light it together with their torch and they just kind of diffuse yours and you’re done.â€� Taylor doesn’t remember quite how he found out he had been selected to carry the torch. In fact, he thinks he was more shocked that anything. “It was like, why me?â€� he says with a smile. “Whoever put my name in to suggest it, maybe they were a golf fan. The previous year I was the No. 1 amateur in the world. “For sure it had something to do with golf — not because I was a regular citizen.â€� And at the time, Taylor says he doesn’t think he realized the significance of what he did. But as another Winter Games has rolled around, he understands. “Looking back it was a really neat kind of accomplishment if you want to call it that or event that I’ve done,â€� he says. “So it’s cool looking back now. But at the time it was just a neat thing to do to have family and friends out there to watch it.â€� Taylor had to go back to classes in Seattle so he didn’t get to attend any of the events in Vancouver. But his girlfriend, Andie, who is now his wife, went, and friends were in Vancouver when the Canadian men’s hockey team beat the United States 3-2 in overtime to win gold. “They said it was unbelievable how many people were there,â€� Taylor says. Taylor, who is playing in the Genesis Open this week, plans to watch some of the Olympics this year. He was a snowboarder in high school and played hockey until he realized he was too small to make his NHL dreams come true. Golf has worked out pretty well, though, for the winner of the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship. Taylor says it will be different this year since the NHL is not allowing its players to participate. But hockey is still big. “That’s what you grow up watching,â€� he says. “I feel like that, it doesn’t make or break the Canadian Olympics but hockey, when the hockey teams win gold … that’s what we take pride in with the No. 1 sport.â€�  And curling, he says, is a close second to hockey. Perhaps the Olympics least understood sport is “huge” back home but Taylor admits that he has never curled in his life. “I understand it enough,â€� he says. “It’s kind of like shuffleboard. but I couldn’t tell you the rules. I just know a lot of times the Canadian team is favored going into it.â€� Taylor says he still has the torch, as well as the silver track suit each participant got for the run. He’s sure his mother has put it somewhere safe but once he and his wife move out of their apartment and into a house he’ll be sure to find a place for the rare souvenir. The torch, which has its own stand, still has the charcoal in it from when the flame was lit. His name isn’t on the front or anything but the Vancouver symbol and Olympic rings are. “I’m not really one to show a bunch of stuff that I’ve accomplished,â€� he says. “But that’s a cool thing and I take a lot of pride in that. So I’ll display it somewhere. We’ll see.â€�

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Emiliano Grillo steadied himself with a pair of birdies over the last six holes Saturday for a 3-under 68, giving the Argentine a one-shot lead going into the final round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN RELATED: Leaderboard | Bhatia proving he belongs Tom Hoge, without a win in his PGA TOUR career, birdied four of the last five holes at El Camaleon Golf Club for a 65 to get within one shot of the lead. After two days of rain, the course was soft and susceptible to low scores and quick movements, and there were plenty of both. Players were allowed to clean and place their golf balls in the fairway. Adam Long ran off seven birdies on his opening nine holes before he slowed and had to settle for a 63. Justin Thomas, who started on the back nine, played bogey-free for a 62 to get back in the mix. He was four shots behind. Tony Finau also got in on the action, but only briefly. Finau made a hole-in-one on the 103-yard fourth hole with a gap wedge. He followed with three more birdies on the front nine and got within one shot of Grillo at one point. But he was wild with the driver, and it finally caught up with him. Finau bogeyed the 11th and 12th, and he failed to make birdie on the par-5 13th with an iron for his second shot. He had no birdies on the back nine, dropped another shot on the 18th and wound up with a 69, leaving him five shots behind. Grillo was at 16-under 197. His only victory was in the season-opening Safeway Open in 2015 in his debut as a PGA TOUR rookie. He rallied that day at Silverado. Sunday will be the first time he takes a lead into the final round on the PGA TOUR, but he should get some confidence from being at Mayakoba. This was his 19th round at El Cameleon, all of them under par. "Started in the lead, finished in the lead, that’s kind of the idea," Grillo said. "Hopefully, one more of those." Even so, it figures to be a wild chase in the final official PGA TOUR event of the year. Ten players were separated by five shots, and Saturday showed that ground can be made up quickly. "Didn't have it on the back nine for me. Luckily I'm still within reach," Finau said. "A lot of guys scored today. Hopefully, I'm one of those guys tomorrow that takes it low. It's going to take probably a low to mid-60s round for me tomorrow." Viktor Hovland, who won in Puerto Rico in one of the final events before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down golf for three months, put together a string of birdies of his own down the stretch for a 63 that left him alone in third, two shots behind. Thomas didn’t feel as though he played that much differently from the second round, when he had a rough time on the greens in the afternoon and finished with two bogeys for a 67. He said he told his father it might have been the worst 67 ever shot. "I felt like I could have shot 60, 61, 62 and shot that," he said. "So I just really just tried to go out there and didn't really have a game plan or mentality, just try to hit the fairways and, with the ball in hand, just attack and make a bunch of birdies. And we did."

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