Emergency 9: A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, final round

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – There will be an elephant in the room Friday night – and we’re not talking about Big Al, the mascot of the University of Alabama, which happens to be the alma mater of one of the housemates, Justin Thomas. Although upon reflection, sticking Big Al in an oversized Scottish kilt and have him kick soccer balls at Auburn grad Jason Dufner would definitely raise the level of absurdity in those backyard matches. Rather, this topic is more serious. Kevin Kisner and Zach Johnson, two of the other seven PGA TOUR golfers who are sharing a compound this week close to Carnoustie Golf Links, are co-leaders at 6 under through 36 holes of The Open Championship. Kisner is seeking his first major win; Johnson is chasing his third. Both desperately want to get their hands on the Claret Jug come Sunday night. The pressure will be immense. To make it even more interesting – they will be in the final twosome in Saturday’s third round. What do Kisner and Johnson think about sharing a house and sharing the 36-hole lead? That’s the big topic – and nothing will be off-limits when the two see each other at the dinner table. In fact, no topic apparently is off-limits among these friends. “Absolutely not,â€� Kisner said after his 1-under 70 left him at 6-under through 36 holes. “The range of topics are vast.â€� Kisner expects he and Johnson – as well as Thomas, Dufner, Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler – to discuss what they’ve been discussing all week. No dancing around any subject matter, although the majority of the conversation is pretty clear-cut. “Golf will probably be the tune,â€� Kisner said. “Everybody will tell their horror stories and good stories, and we’ll laugh and eat a big ol’ meal and sit around and watch something stupid.â€� Actually, not everything they watch is stupid. The other night they watched the Netflix movie “Icarus,â€� a fascinating documentary about the Russian doping scandal. Sounds like pretty heady stuff for a group of guys who otherwise play pick-up soccer, with Dufner playing all-time goalie. This is the third year of The Open Championship “fratâ€� house but the first time that Kisner has been in the group. He’s fit in nicely, and perhaps hanging out with a group of friends has helped alleviate the pressure of leading the first two days. Johnson, of course, already has shown he can successfully handle the challenge of winning a major. At 42, he’s the oldest member of the house, although the housing arragements didn’t exist when he won the Claret Jug in 2015. “I wasn’t in a fraternity in college, but it kind of feels like I’m going back to my alma mater,â€� Johnson said after his 4-under 67 in the morning. “And I’m the old guy stepping into the current frat house…. “It does make the week significantly easier because of the amenities we have and because I’m with buddies and because I’m with guys that, I mean, certainly I can feed off and vice versa. It’s never a bad thing to bond or hang out, whether you’re competing or not.â€� While Kisner and Johnson are the co-heads of the household right now, they’re not the only ones in contention entering this weekend at Carnoustie. Spieth shot a 4-under 67 and is now just three strokes off the lead as he attempts to win a second consecutive title at The Open. Fowler also has the same score as Spieth at 3 under after a 69, while Dufner made the cut on the number at 3 over. Thomas (4 over) and Walker (8 over) unfortunately will have to sit out the weekend. But Fowler and Thomas may have a side competition going this week – best scruffy beard. “I think he kind of followed my lead in a way,â€� said Fowler, who started growing his last week during a T-6 performance at the Scottish Open. “It’s just fun. We mess around with it. Obviously, not taking it too seriously. But like I said, ended up playing halfway decent last week, so I couldn’t really shave it off going into this week.â€� Back to the golf competition … a year ago, Spieth entered the weekend at Royal Birkdale with a two-shot lead over non-house member Matt Kuchar. Nobody else staying with Spieth was close to sniffing the lead, and after the third round, Spieth and Kuchar had clear separation from the field. This year could be different, especially if there are multiple co-leaders in the house entering the final round. “We’ll see how tomorrow plays out,â€� Spieth said. “Maybe tomorrow night or Sunday, it’s gets a little quiet. “But I doubt it.â€� A year ago, Spieth also had to pony up a substantial amount of money to pay the entire private jet fee for the housemates to return home to the United States. It was part of the agreement made if anybody in the house won The Open. According to Johnson, no such agreement exists this year, so he and Kisner – as well as Spieth and Fowler and even Dufner – are off the hook. “This year a bunch of guys are going elsewhere,â€� Johnson said. “So it’s not going to come to fruition. It’s not going to happen, but that’s fine.â€� Might be a topic worth revisiting now that so many housemates are in contention. Sounds like they have plenty to talk about.

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KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Steve Stricker had a premonition this might happen. It was early in the week, and he and Phil Mickelson were taking on Zach Johnson and Will Zalatoris in a nine-hole match in advance of the 103rd PGA Championship at Kiawah. “Let me just say, Phil did a lot of talking,” Stricker said. “So when Phil does a lot of talking, that means that usually he’s playing well, and him and I beat up on Zach and Will a little bit.” Mickelson is still making plenty of noise halfway through this windswept PGA, which he led after the morning wave after a second-round 69. After starting on the back nine and making the turn at even par, he heated up on his inward nine for the second straight day with a 5-under 31. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Nine Things to Know: Kiawah Island | Once again, 17 provides best theater at Kiawah “I think he has the bit between his teeth,” said Padraig Harrington (73, even par), who played the first 36 holes with Mickelson and Jason Day (75, 5 over). “I think he believes he can do it in these conditions, just like myself. I think myself, Phil would find it easier to compete on this style of golf course in these conditions in a major tournament all the time. “You can be patient in these courses,” he continued, “and obviously you’ve got to make a few birdies, but it suits somebody who is a player, somebody who is thinking.” Mickelson will turn 51 next month, and while he’s dropped to 115th in the world, 168th in the FedExCup, he’s shown some signs of life. He looked like the Phil of old as he shot a first-round 64 to take the lead at the Wells Fargo Championship two weeks ago. But he looked, well, just plain old after that, failing to break 75 as he spiraled down the board into 69th place. Harrington said that he first met Mickelson at the 1991 Walker Cup at Portmarnock Golf Club. Three decades later, Mickelson has won 44 times on the PGA TOUR, including five majors, but with only two wins in the last seven years, he admits his mental game has fallen off. “I’m working on it,” he said. “I’m just making more and more progress just by trying to elongate my focus. I might try to play 36, 45 holes in a day and try to focus on each shot so that when I go out and play 18, it doesn’t feel like it’s that much. I might try to elongate the time that I end up meditating, but I’m trying to use my mind like a muscle and just expand it because as I’ve gotten older, it’s been more difficult for me to maintain a sharp focus, a good visualization and see the shot. “Physically I feel like I’m able to perform and hit the shots that I’ve hit throughout my career,” he added. Occasionally using a 2-wood that he deploys as a fairway finder, Mickelson hit 11 of 14 fairways in the second round. That’s uncannily accurate, for him, and allows him to shine with his irons, the strength of his game. He said he and his caddie/brother Tim have been spot-on with their yardages – Mickelson hit 12 greens in regulation – and was No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green as the afternoon wave began. He took a tidy 27 putts for the second straight day. It was his ability to avoid the big miss, though, that stood out. Mickelson, whose best this season is a T21 at the Masters, came into this week 199th in driving accuracy. He admittedly strives to be average in that category, but there’s nothing average about him finding the short grass only 50% of the time. “Yeah, there were no foul balls,” Day said, when asked what he saw from Mickelson the first two days. “Usually with Phil you can get some pretty wide ones, and he kept it straight out in front of him. And his iron play was pretty tight. There was a lot of quality iron shots into the greens.” The only real danger Mickelson got into was as the group was put on the clock for slow play. After he came up just short of the green at the par-3 eighth, microphones picked him up saying he was rushing because he was afraid of getting dinged for a bad time. Alas, he was not, and got up and down for par. After converting from 22 1/2 feet at the ninth for his final birdie of the day, and doing his media hits, he went back out to the practice putting green. He found something in his stroke at the turn, he said, which led to those five late birdies (2, 4, 5, 7, 9). Yes, he’s logged some serious miles on TOUR. Yes, Harrington joked that his caddie, Ronan Flood, asked who Mickelson played in singles in the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah. (Mickelson wasn’t on those teams yet.) But yes, Phil Mickelson has the bit in his teeth. “He’s not here to make the cut,” Harrington said. “He’s not here to finish – even 15th would be a disappointment. You know what? Even second would be a disappointment for Phil.” He will plot his way around a dastardly Pete Dye design. He will confront players half his age. He will take on himself in an epic battle between the Phil of old and just-plain-old Phil. Which one will win the weekend? That we’re all meditating on that is the surprise of the week.

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SAN DIEGO – In his prime, Tiger Woods would barely look at a fellow competitor and if he did it was to deliver a stare so icy it would rip right through you. Just how he will be in the heat of battle again remains to be seen as we’ve not had the pleasure of a fully healthy Woods since 2014. But one thing is certain – this is a new Tiger Woods. Both physically – with his fused back – and mentally. On Tuesday at Torrey Pines, Woods returned to a regular PGA TOUR event for the first time in a year, playing a nine-hole practice round as the sun rose with Jason Day and Bryson DeChambeau. His appearance at the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open – where he missed the cut a week before withdrawing in Dubai and going in for further back surgery – is his only full field TOUR event since the Wyndham Championship in August of 2015. Four back surgeries since March 2014 had many worried this week would never come again. But now, at this stage, there is much hope and excitement at what a fit Woods can do. A ninth-place finish in the Bahamas at the limited field Hero World Challenge in December surprised and impressed many. A year earlier – on a similar comeback trail – he finished at the back end of the same field. And while he had shown some good signs – he was still playing rigid and still in pain. This time around, the 79-time TOUR winner looks freed up in his swing. This time he waited after surgery. This time he was patient. “The other times he came back I don’t think he was ready and he probably came back too soon,â€� Day said after the round Tuesday. “This time he definitely looks ready; I think his swing is really nice, he’s hitting the driver a long way and he looks like he’s got some speed, which is great. And his touch is coming back.â€� It was true that in his nine holes he hit some powerful drives, mint irons and wedges and holed plenty of putts. But he also found some of Torrey’s famous deep rough on occasions. Having won the Farmers Insurance Open seven times plus the U.S. Open and junior world titles at Torrey, it is a track he’s comfortable with. And the man himself feels ready. After a brief break following the Bahamas event Woods began serious preparations for his return. “I feel good,â€� Woods said. “Before the Hero I was basically given the OK probably about three or four weeks prior to the tournament and I thought I did a pretty good in that prep time. “Now I’ve had a little more time to get ready for this event. I’ve played a lot more golf and overall, I feel like I’ve made some nice changes. It’s just a matter of coming out here and competing again.â€� Having had the setbacks in the past Woods admitted he had to dial it back at times as his enthusiasm to return built. “It’s just that I’m trying to build in golf endurance. So, I’m hitting a lot of golf balls and building up my endurance,â€� he said. “You have to do it. You have to beat balls for a little bit of time to build up your endurance and muscles. I feel like I’ve done that and now it’s time to play a tournament.â€� For a long time, players wouldn’t speak to Woods unless spoken to. You could almost see the literal parting of the waves as he walked through the range or practice areas in a direct line to his destination.  He was all business. But now, at 42, Woods has evolved into a different human. In near darkness Tuesday he greeted Day on the range with a huge grin and a bear hug. Yes. A hug. Woods was all smiles with other players, caddies and officials alike – actively seeking out Justin Rose on the putting green to give another bro cuddle. At one point in the morning round, Woods went looking for one of Day’s errant drives in the rough even though Day himself had given up on it. This version of Woods is clearly a friendly guy. DeChambeau, who was playing with Woods for the first time, had to pinch himself at times. On their final hole he admitted to trying to pound his driver with something extra to show the veteran what he had. He wanted to impress. “There were a couple of moments I was like – I am playing with the greatest,â€� DeChambeau laughed. The 2017 John Deere Classic winner believes everyone wants to see Woods back to his best, and he’s expecting it to happen. “I expect he will come back to full form, I really think so,â€� he said. “His passion is there; his drive is there and if he gets it going it is going to be scary for everybody again.â€� Day, who has become friends with Woods over the past four years or so, warned to keep expectations tempered, just for now. “He looks impressive; it was good to see,â€� Day said “You take (Torrey Pines) last year and the Dubai tournament out and he hasn’t really played in two years. “I think the biggest thing is to not get too far ahead, or think he’s going to come back and win straight way. “He may win straight away, but you never know.â€� Just the hope he might has everyone wishing it was Thursday already.

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