GOAT of GOATs: Could it be Tiger’s time?

The Desert Classic continues today with Round 2 getting underway La Quinta, California. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action at the Desert Classic. Round 2 tee times Round 2 leaderboard HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN (ALL TIMES ET) TELEVISION: Thursday-Sunday, 3-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel) PGA TOUR LIVE: Live streaming of Featured Groups on Thursday and Friday (11 a.m. ET) PGA TOUR LIVE on Twitter: 11:30 a.m. ET to approximately 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday and Friday RADIO: Thursday-Saturday, 1-7 p.m.; Sunday, 2-7 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.COM) NOTABLE PAIRINGS (ALL TIMES ET) 1:30 p.m. ET : Russell Knox, Jhonattan Vegas (La Quinta Country Club) 11:30 a.m. ET: Chesson Hadley, Bill Haas (La Quinta Country Club) 1:30 p.m. ET: Justin Rose, Zach Johnson (Nicklaus Tournament Course) 11:40 a.m. ET: Phil Mickelson, Aaron Wise (Nicklaus Tournament Course) MUST-READS Remembering David Duval’s 59 at Desert Classic José de Jesús Rodríguez overcame hardship and tragedy Mickelson opens with 12-under 60 Rose closes with three-straight birdies Rahm fights off flu to start title defense Hadwin continues strong play at La Quinta

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I've realized over the last couple of weeks, after the tough start I had both at the U.S. Open and Shriners, that this is without question a new PGA TOUR season. Yes, I can use all those positives that came from my breakthrough victory at the PGA Championship, but that doesn't necessarily mean things are automatically going to come my way now. The proof in that was missing the first two cuts of the 2020-21 season. Sure, I may be a major winner now, but I still have to play good golf, and everyone out here is really good at golf, too. That's what makes the PGA TOUR awesome, is that any week anyone can win. I've really just got to focus in on getting ready for this new season, and prep in a way to slowly get into the rhythm of things. I definitely think I'm a little more mature than the average 23-year-old, but that's just kind of the head I've always had on myself. I've always tried to be that way—tried to be level-headed and not be too immature. I don't know where that comes from. I don't know that if you're a parent you can just go teach and instill those qualities in your kid. That's just who I've been. That's just me. All that being said, I'm lucky enough to have an excellent group around me that's always trying to keep me on the right track. My longtime coach, Rick Sessinghaus, is big on psychology and being a mental coach. For 15 years now, he's been all about implementing the actual swing and the physical aspects of golf with the mental side of the game and incorporating both. I think they have to mesh really well together. So if one is working well and the other isn't, you might not end up playing great golf consistently. We're continuously trying to find things that work, or certain words that might stick out in my head that help me play a little better and just go from there. My girlfriend, Kat Zhu, has been huge in that area, too. She played collegiate golf at Pepperdine, so she understands the challenges of the game as well as anyone. Especially last summer, she was traveling all around with me while I had no status, and if I didn't have her, I would have been traveling by myself to places I've never been with a caddie that I just met. She made things a lot easier. And it wasn't as lonely. And I think that's why I was able to go out there and just play golf, and she could get my mind off of it after or before the rounds. But when I was there, I could just relax and actually go enjoy golf instead of stressing about what this round may be or what this shot may count as. And my parents, Blaine and Debbie, have given me everything I've ever wanted, and I couldn't have been more fortunate to grow up in a family like that. I've been very lucky and blessed to have that in my life. For them to teach me to respect others, that's huge. They really want me to be respectful to anyone. It doesn't matter who you're with or who you're around. You never know who someone might be, who they are or what they've gone through. Just respecting others was the big thing they taught me when I was growing up as a kid. I may be American, and obviously I represent the United States, but it was so cool going to Japan last year for the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and see people recognizing me a little bit easier than they might have out here at a regular PGA TOUR event in who-knows-where. My dad is a Japanese American from Hawaii, and my mom is a Chinese American from California, but the fans there could still see that they are similar to me, and there's a sense of pride in that. They can see that someone like them has been able to succeed out here on the PGA TOUR. I have never seen fans like that, where they line up on the first tee—and every other hole after that—just giving you claps when you hit a tee shot, no matter where it goes. That's what was really cool, to see their love for the game out there. They love golf. As players, we love to see those reactions from people that just really embrace being there. They want to be there just as much as we want to be there playing golf. So yes, I'm American and I fully embrace that, but it's cool to see other people look at me—and maybe even look at me as a role model, even though I'm only 23—and use that to their inspiration, I hope. It's crazy to think about that, because I feel so young. I feel like them. I feel like a kid. If a kid in high school comes up to me, I don't feel that much older than them. But I've already done things that mean a lot, and I have to fully embrace that. I have to realize the position I'm in and just have fun. These kids want to have fun, I want to have fun. So for me to show them how I have fun out there is really important. That's my goal, just to inspire people to do what they love, whether that's in golf or whatever. Dream big and go do it.

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KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Phil Mickelson has delivered so many thrills and spills over 30 years of pure theater that no one ever knows what he will do next. RELATED: Ben Cook wins low club professional at PGA Championship | Final leaderboard His latest act was a real stunner: A major champion at age 50. Mickelson captured his sixth major and by far the most surprising Sunday at the PGA Championship. He made two early birdies with that magical wedge game and let a cast of contenders fall too far behind to catch him in the shifting wind of Kiawah Island. He closed with a 1-over 73, building a five-shot lead on the back nine and not making any critical mistakes that kept him from his place in history. Julius Boros for 53 years held the distinction of golf’s oldest major champion. He was 48 when he won the 1968 PGA Championship in San Antonio. Pure chaos broke out along the 18th hole after Mickelson hit 9-iron safely to just outside 15 feet that all but secured a most improbable victory. Thousands of fans engulfed him down the fairway — a scene typically seen only at the Open Championship — until Mickelson emerged into view with a thumbs-up. Chants of “Lefty! Lefty! Lefty!” chased him onto the green and into the scoring tent, his final duty of a week he won’t soon forget. Three months after 43-year-old Tom Brady won a seventh Super Bowl, Mickelson added to this year of ageless wonders. Mickelson became the first player in PGA TOUR history to win tournaments 30 years apart. The first of his 45 titles was in 1991 when he was still a junior at Arizona State. Mickelson became the 10th player to win majors in three decades, an elite list that starts with Harry Vardon and was most recently achieved by Tiger Woods. “He’s been on TOUR as long as I’ve been alive,” Jon Rahm said. “For him to keep that willingness to play and compete and practice, it’s truly admirable.” Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen had their chances, but only briefly. Koepka was 4 over on the par 5s when the game was still on and closed with a 74. Oosthuizen hit into the water as he was trying to make a final run and shot 73. Mickelson finished at 6-under 282. The victory came one week after Mickelson accepted a special exemption into the U.S. Open because at No. 115 in the world and winless the last two years, he no longer was exempt from qualifying. He had not finished in the top 20 in his last 17 tournaments over nearly nine months. He worried that he was no longer able to keep his focus over 18 holes. The PGA Championship had the largest and loudest crowd since the return from the COVID-19 pandemic — the PGA of America said it limited tickets to 10,000 — and it was clear what they wanted to see. The opening hour made it seem as though the final day could belong to anyone. The wind finished its switch to the opposite direction from the opening rounds, and while there was low scoring early, Mickelson and Koepka traded brilliance and blunder. Koepka flew the green with a wedge on the par-5 second hole, could only chip it about 6 feet to get out of an impossible lie and made double bogey, a three-shot swing when Mickelson hit a deft pitch from thick grass behind the green. Mickelson holed a sand shot from short of the green on the par-5 third, only for Koepka to tie for the lead with a two-shot swing on the sixth hole when he made birdie and Lefty missed the green well to the right. Kevin Streelman briefly had a share of the lead. Louis Oosthuizen was lurking, even though it took him seven holes to make a birdie. And then the potential for any drama was sucked out to sea. Oosthuizen, coming off a birdie to get within three, had to lay up out of the thick grass on the 13th and then sent his third shot right of the flag and into the water, making double bogey. Just like that, Mickelson was up by five and headed toward the inward holes, the wind at his back on the way home with what seemed like the entire state of South Carolina at his side.

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