Lefty may back out of PGA event … because of fans

Phil Mickelson, by his own admission, hasn’t historically been “high on hybrids.” There are several reasons the reigning PGA champion hasn’t had much success with the clubs in the past: Too much variability in spin and ball flight, depending on where the ball is struck on the face. Too difficult to flight the ball down. Inconsistent distance. Given Mickelson’s apprehension around members of the hybrid family, it’s interesting to note that he is carrying one of Callaway’s new Apex UW (utility woods), which were released to retail this week. What’s different about this hybrid for Mickelson? “It gives me a consistent apex and a consistent spin rate from different lies that hybrids haven’t given me, and the ability to hit from the rough and control the flight and bring it down that fairway woods don’t,” Mickelson told Callaway’s Johnny Wunder. Mickelson’s UW hybrid is reportedly bent to 17 degrees, tightening the gap between his longer clubs while also allowing him to hit a variety of shots. The Apex UW utility wood was designed to combine the best features of higher-lofted fairway woods, hybrids, and a more neutral ball flight. “The reason why I like it is the center of gravity is more forward, or plays like an iron, so I don’t get the jumpers out of the first cut and then the big spin ones out of a tight lie, Mickelson said Wednesday from the PGA TOUR Champions’ Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS. “And the relief on the back sole allows me to open the face and keep the face open through impact in the rough on the chop rough shot, as opposed to having the back of the sole close the face through impact. It allows me keep the face open and have some loft so I can get it out of thicker, longer, heavier rough a lot easier.” We’ll be keenly watching for additional adopters on TOUR as the Apex UW arrives at retail and its profile is further raised. According to Wunder, Mickelson first set eyes on the club at the U.S. Open, where he watched fellow left-hander Akshay Bhatia use it on a long par-3 during a practice round. Bhatia began testing it at the Ely Callaway Performance Center the previous week. Given Mickelson’s love of tinkering and experimentation, it’s no surprise what happened next: Mickelson borrowed the club and fired a towering tee shot toward the green. Reportedly, Callaway had built him an Apex UW to test before he even finished the round, and an Apex UW with a Fujikura Ventus Red 9 X shaft has been among Mickelson’s chosen 14 clubs ever since.

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OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - One of the toughest tests of the year made it clear that par would be a great score at Olympia Fields. Leave it to Hideki Matsuyama to make a 65-foot birdie putt on his final hole Thursday to lead the BMW Championship. Matsuyama, the Japanese player who has gone three years since his last victory, birdied two of his last three holes for a 3-under 67, one of only three rounds under par on a course that was long, tough, firm, fast and nothing like the last two weeks. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Tyler Duncan, just outside the top 30 as he tries to earn his first trip to the TOUR Championship, made an 8-foot par putt on his last hole for a 68. Mackenzie Hughes, one of only four players who reached 3 under at any point in his round, was another shot behind. “I’m not sure really what I had going today, but that last putt, the long putt that went in, very happy with that one,” Matsuyama said. “So we’ll remember that one.” Dustin Johnson, who won THE NORTHERN TRUST last week at 30-under par, opened with a 71 and felt like it was a good day’s work. He was told that even three straight rounds of 60 would not be enough to reach 30 under at Olympia Fields. “Yeah, but I would win,” he said. By a landslide, no doubt. Tiger Woods needs to finish around fourth to have any hope of returning to East Lake next week in Atlanta to chase the $15 million bonus for the FedExCup winner. He was hovering around even par a few shots out of the lead. He finished with three straight bogeys for a 73 and was running hotter than the weather. A three-time U.S. Open champion, Woods knows all about control and patience and key pars putts. And then he let a reasonable round get away from him. “The course was fine. The course is in perfect shape. Not the way I wanted to finish,” Woods said in brief comments. The average score was 72.8, and only four of the 18 holes played under par. That included both par 5s. This is what the U.S. Open could have used in 2003, instead of rain-softened conditions. It was hot in the morning, baking out a dry course. The rough is 5 inches in spots. The greens were hard, making it tough to get the ball close and nearly impossible to get shots to stop on the green from out of the rough. “I think when golf courses become like this and pars are a premium, I think I’m almost more comfortable at times because you don’t feel like you’ll ever get left behind when you’re running off a few pars in a row,” Hughes said. “Like last week, if you got off to a slow start and you were even par through six holes you felt like you were getting run over.” Rory McIlroy was among 10 players who finished at 70 and felt the day was a success. He hasn’t registered a top 10 since golf returned from the coronavirus shutdown in June, and he conceded to being lethargic without fan energy. “I said last week if you need someone to shoot between like even par and 2 under, I’m your man,” McIlroy said. “So I’m loving these conditions. It’s sort of weird. The way my game feels at the minute, it’s just as easy for me to shoot even par here as it was last week in Boston, for whatever reason that is. “But this is proper golf,” he said. “You’ve really got to think about stuff. … It’s nice to play a round of golf like that again.” Also in that group at even par was Carlos Ortiz of Mexico, notable because he was the latest player to be grouped with Woods for the first time. He raved about how Woods controls the flight of his irons. He missed out on the massive crowd because there are no spectators, only carts carrying the broadcast crew. “It’s probably the least amount of people he’s played in front of,” Ortiz said, “and the most for me.”

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