Live leaderboard: AT&T Byron Nelson

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Phil Mickelson started his first event of 2019 with the lowest score of his PGA TOUR career. He ended it with a disappointing defeat, losing a two-shot lead in the final round of the Desert Classic. Mickelson followed Thursday’s 60 at La Quinta Country Club with rounds of 66 and 68 to post the second-lowest 54-hole score of his career. He started the final round two shots ahead of Adam Hadwin and three ahead of Adam Long. Long made a 14-foot birdie putt on 18 to beat Mickelson (69) and Hadwin (67) by one shot. Long’s Sunday 65 included chip-ins on the 12th and 15th holes. He finished at 26-under 262 (63-71-63-65). Mickelson has now failed to convert six of his last seven 54-hole leads. This was the second consecutive time he lost a two-shot lead entering the final round. The other came at the 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. This was Mickelson’s first official TOUR event since the Safeway Open in October and his first competitive round since his match with Tiger Woods. In spite of his low scores, he said that he was rusty at the start of the week. His lack of recent competition may have contributed to Sunday’s struggles, as well. “It’s a weird game how sometimes if you haven’t played for awhile it just can click and come right back,� Mickelson said. “But usually you need a little bit of a foundation there coming down the stretch. When you get to feel the pressure, you need to have that foundation of practice and seeing the shots that you want to hit, seeing the ball go in on the greens. I didn’t really have that today.� Mickelson was trailing by two when the final group reached the 10th tee. He bogeyed the par-4 ninth after driving into the water and Hadwin birdied the hole. Mickelson made back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16 to tie Hadwin and Long atop the leaderboard, though. He made birdie after missing a 10-foot eagle putt. Mickelson narrowly missed lengthy birdie putts on the final two holes, as well. The long putts weren’t the problems, though. “It was the short (putts). It was the short putts that I really turned around these last few years and today I just struggled,� Mickelson said. He lost 3.2 strokes on the greens Sunday. He missed a 4-foot putt to three-putt the first hole and also missed two putts from 5-7 feet. “I had a terrible putting day, one of the worst I can recall in a while,� he said. “It started right on the first hole. … I felt awful with the putter. I hit a lot of good shots today, though, but just couldn’t get the ball to go in the hole.� Mickelson, 48, said earlier in the week that swing speed and putting are the two skills that see decline at his age. He led the field in driving distance (302.5 yards on all tee shots) but finished 64th (out of 73 players) in Strokes Gained: Putting.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida and NEW YORK, New York – The PGA TOUR and SiriusXM announced today that they have reached a four-year extension to their broadcasting agreement, which will continue extensive tournament coverage on SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio for subscribers nationwide through 2021. SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio listeners enjoy live coverage of every round of most PGA TOUR events throughout the season – including THE PLAYERS Championship, the four events of the FedExCup Playoffs and the biennial Presidents Cup – with hole-by-hole commentary and expert analysis, on the only audio channel dedicated to professional golf. Subscribers can listen to the SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio channel on SiriusXM radios (Sirius channel 208, XM channel 92), and those with streaming access can listen online, on-the-go with the SiriusXM mobile app and at home on a wide variety of connected devices, including smart TVs, Amazon Alexa devices, Apple TV, PlayStation, Roku, Sonos speakers and more. For more information, visit www.SiriusXM.com/SiriusXMPGATOURRadio. “We are very pleased to continue our relationship with SiriusXM, whose growing subscriber base is an important and effective way for the TOUR to reach fans across the country,” said Rick Anderson, the PGA TOUR’s Chief Media Officer. “The PGA TOUR represents the pinnacle of competitive golf and we are thrilled to work with SiriusXM to continue delivering the best golf in the world to fans everywhere, whether they are in their cars, at home or on the go.” “PGA TOUR coverage is a very important part of our sports programming lineup, and we are very pleased to extend our long-term relationship with the TOUR to continue to give our listeners an extensive schedule of in-depth tournament broadcasts,” said Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM’s President and Chief Content Officer. “No other audio or streaming broadcaster can match SiriusXM’s level of golf programming, and whether it is via our radios or our app, we continue to deliver it to fans anywhere across the country.” Since 2005, SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio has featured a variety of broadcasters working on comprehensive play-by-play coverage, including former TOUR winners Mark Carnevale, Mark McCumber, Dennis Paulson, John Rollins, Paul Stankowski and Phil Tataurangi. Earl Forcey anchors the coverage most weeks, with Fred Albers, Doug Bell, Jane Crafter, Will Haskett, Mark Immelman, Kevin Sylvester, Bill Rosinski, Tom Werme and Mark Zecchino among those returning to provide exclusive play-by-play coverage and player interviews from inside the ropes. SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio airs live 365 days a year and continues to offer the best daily golf talk, news, analysis and instruction available on radio or streaming platforms. The channel’s roster of hosts features many prominent voices from the game, like World Golf Hall of Fame members and major winners Fred Couples, Hale Irwin, Ben Crenshaw, Craig Stadler, Mark Calcavecchia and Dave Stockton; distinguished instructors Bob Ford, Michael Breed, Debbie Doniger, Eden Foster, Hank Haney, David Leadbetter, Jim McLean and Larry Rinker; current and former PGA TOUR pros Pat Perez, Mark Carnevale, John Cook, Chris DiMarco, John Maginnes, Carl Paulson and Dennis Paulson; PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua; Grammy Award-winning artist and golf devotee Darius Rucker; and many more. In addition to all of the PGA TOUR events mentioned above, SiriusXM also offers, through separate agreements, live coverage of the Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, The Open Championship, PGA Championship and Ryder Cup.

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