Kapalua greens no issue despite off color look

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Phil Mickelson birdied four of his last five holes Friday in the Desert Classic to take a two-stroke lead into the weekend in his first event of the year. A day after matching his career-low score with 12-under 60 at La Quinta Country Club, the 48-year-old Mickelson had a 68 on PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course to reach 16 under. “I struck the ball every bit as well, I just didn’t putt anywhere close to as well as I did yesterday,” said Mickelson, the tournament winner in 2002 and 2004. Lefty will play the final two rounds on PGA West’s Stadium Course. “I’m starting to drive the ball a lot longer and straighter than I have in a while and so that sets up nicely for that course,” Mickelson said. “I feel like I can play aggressively with the way I’m hitting it off the tee.” Curtis Luck was second after a 66 on the Nicklaus layout. The 22-year-old Australian rebounded from a bogey on the par-3 eighth with a closing birdie on the par-4 ninth. “Just like yesterday, very solid, lot of greens, a lot of fairways,” said Luck, the 2016 U.S. Amateur champion. “Just missed a couple of short ones today, unfortunately. But putting’s been great.” Adam Hadwin and Steve Marino were 13 under, and defending champion Jon Rahm was another stroke back with Wyndham Clark and Joey Garber. MUST READS: Round 2, Desert Classic Mickelson finishes strong to maintain lead Hadwin back in contention Luck two shots back going into weekend Mickelson birdied the par-4 fifth and sixth holes, the par-5 seventh and closed with another on No. 9 . On his opening nine, he birdied the par-5 11th and par-3 12th , then gave back the strokes with a double bogey after hitting into the water on the par-4 18th. “It really wasn’t as hard a shot as I made it look,” Mickelson said about his approach on 18. “I had a decent lie after dropping off the cart path, but I had the ball a little bit below my feet and a slight uphill lie, which the tendency on those shots is to pull it and I just didn’t adjust for that very well and I pulled it right in the water.” Mickelson is making his first TOUR start since early October and first competitive appearance since beating Tiger Woods in Las Vegas in November in a one-day, made-for-TV event. He won the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship last year for his 43rd PGA TOUR title and first since the 2013 British Open. “There’s two areas that guys tend to decline when they hit about mid 40s or so forth,” Mickelson said. “One is speed and one is putting. The last two years I’ve done a good job of improving my putting. I’ve actually putted better the last few years than I ever have in my career. The last thing is speed, because if I have speed with the driver then I can worry more about accuracy.” Hadwin had a 66 at La Quinta, the course where the Canadian shot 59 two years ago. “I’m playing some extremely good golf again here in the desert and just got to keep moving forward,” Hadwin said. Marino had a hole-in-one on the seventh hole at La Quinta in a 65. “There was like probably 15 people behind the green, but it was weird, they didn’t really go bananas,” Marino said. “So we thought it was in, but it wasn’t like a hundred percent sure and luckily we went up there and it was in the hole.” Rahm had a 66 on the Nicklaus Course. He also will play the final two days on the Stadium Course. “It’s still a very, very difficult golf course and you have to hit it good,” Rahm said. “Hopefully, I just keep the mojo that I had last year going.” Clark shot 67 on the Nicklaus layout, and Garber had a 64 at La Quinta. Defending FedExCup champion Justin Rose was tied for 28th at 8 under after a 68 on the Nicklaus layout.

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NAPA, Calif. — Jim Knous shot a 7-under 65 on Saturday for a share of the lead with Maverick McNealy after three rounds in the Fortinet Championship. RELATED: Leaderboard | Phil Mickelson in contention at Fortinet Championship Knous had eight birdies, five on the front nine, then held on after a bogey on No. 12 to match McNealy at 14 under. McNealy, the second-round leader, had four bogeys on the front nine, then closed with three consecutive birdies for a 70. Max Homa (65) was two strokes back with Scott Stallings (67), Mito Pereira (70), Troy Merritt (69) and Beau Hossler (70). Ten others, including Phil Mickelson (67), were four strokes back heading into the final round. On a cool, sometimes blustery day when the lead changed hands several times, Knous made up for an uneven day off the tee with steady, consistent iron play that put him in good shape on the greens. The 31-year-old needed just 22 putts covering 69 feet to maneuver his way to the front of the pack. “Putter got hot there late on the back nine,” said Knous, who is winless on thePGA TOUR since making his debut at this course in 2019. “I just tend to see the breaks pretty well out here. A lot of them have big swings and you can use your imagination and that’s kind of how I like to putt, so I was able to roll some nice ones in.” Knous made an 8-foot birdie putt from off the green on 18. “Me and my caddie had a great read,” Knous said. “It was just going to break a little bit right at the end. Put a good stroke on it, perfect speed, and there you go.” McNealy entered the day with the lead, but fell three strokes behind after struggling with his driver on the front nine. McNealy was 2 over for the round midway through the back nine when he got rolling. He made a 22-foot putt for birdie on 13, rolled another long putt in for birdie on 16, then sank two more birdie putts on the final two. “It was a crazy day,” said McNealy, who, like Knous is seeking his first TOUR win. “I remember hitting a good tee shot down the middle on the 12th with a utility iron and everything seemed to slow down and calm down for me. I started seeing my lines with the putter.” McNealy stayed in the hunt despite appearing to hurt his right wrist punching out from a tree on No. 3, the first of his four bogeys on the front nine. “(I) was really lucky that I didn’t try to hit a full swing because I chipped out sideways and a softball-sized rock came out from under the ball,” McNealy said. “I stung my wrist a little bit. I’m really glad I didn’t go after that one full because I told (my caddie) I would have been out for a year.” Mickelson had his best round of the tournament and made five consecutive birdies on the back nine. The 51-year-old PGA Championship winner immediately went to the putting green after finishing his round. “I felt like I blocked a couple putts … and I just wanted to work on that,” Mickelson said. Webb Simpson also was 10 under after a 65. The 2012 U.S. Open champion had eight birdies – three more than he had in the first two rounds combined.

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