Sergio Garcia on joining the LIV series: ‘This, for me, was a good decision’

2022 Wyndham Championship, Round 1 Scoring Conditions: Overall: -0.51 strokes per round Morning wave: -0.65 Afternoon wave: -0.37 Current cutline (top 65 and ties): 78 players at -1 or better (T58) Top 3 projected cutline probabilities: 1. 3 under par: 41.0% 2. 2 under par: 32.9% 3. 4 under par: 15.5% Top 10 win probabilities: 1. Sungjae Im (2, -7, 23.3%) 2. John Huh (1, -9, 12.9%) 3. Aaron Wise (T5, -5, 5.6%) 4. Billy Horschel (T23, -3, 4.0%) 5. Russell Henley (T23, -3, 3.5%) 6. Peter Malnati (T3, -6, 3.1%) 7. Alex Smalley (T5, -5, 2.8%) 8. Brandon Wu (T3, -6, 2.8%) 9. Christiaan Bezuidenhout (T14, -4, 2.4%) 10. Brian Harman (T23, -3, 2.4%) NOTE: These reports are based off of the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut”, “Top 20”, “Top 5”, and “Win” probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the Wyndham Championship, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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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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We head south of the border for this week’s PGA TOUR stop to see just who can keep their focus on work rather than relaxation in the gorgeous Playa Del Carmen region of Mexico. Perhaps the key to success at El Camaleon Golf Club is balancing the two to perfection, much like defending champion Pat Perez was able to do last year. Perez played sensational golf on the course and enjoyed the beauty of the region off it on his way to a great win. It started a career renaissance, which has also seen him win this season in Malaysia before his arrival ensuring he is the FedExCup leader up to this point. But he has some big stars standing in his way this time. Rickie Fowler is making his tournament and season debut. Patrick Reed, Charley Hoffman, Kevin Chappell, Si Woo Kim, Emiliano Grillo, Jhonattan Vegas and Anirban Lahiri all featured in the recent Presidents Cup and now find themselves in the Mexico field. There are five locals in the field: Abraham Ancer, Roberto Diaz, Carlos Ortiz, Jose de Jesus Rodriguez and Oscar Fraustro – who will all try to salute in front of the vocal home fans. Here are the featured groups. Playa Del Carmen falls in the same time zone as the East Coast. All tee times are Eastern Time. Rickie Fowler, Emiliano Grillo, Chesson Hadley: Fowler is making his debut on the season and in this event and will be hoping to start with a bang having already given up ground to plenty of his competitors. Grillo has already played three times this season and while he has made every cut he’s so fa failed to get things really going like he’d expect. Perhaps this is his week. The same could be said for Hadley who has been inside the top 5 the last three tournaments in a row. Is this the time he gets to the top? Tee times: Thursday 7:30 a.m. (ET) off 10 tee; Friday 12:00 p.m. off 1st tee Jhonattan Vegas, Kevin Chappell, Patrick Reed: An all Presidents Cup group this trio could certainly produce some fireworks. Expect Vegas and Reed to hunt aggressive looks at birdie while Chappell’s steady sublime ball-striking will ensure he’s not lacking chances. Vegas and Chappelll were winners last season… can they do it again? And will Reed return to glory? Tee times: Thursday 7:40 a.m. (ET) off 10 tee; Friday 12:10 p.m. off 1st tee Bryson DeChambeau, Si Woo Kim, Zach Johnson: DeChambeau is burning to get back out on course after making a run last week in Las Vegas only to fold late while Kim showed signs at the Presidents Cup that his PLAYERS championship victory was no flash in the pan. He’s looking to establish himself amongst the games super elite this season. Johnson comes in as understated as always. The two-time major champion is happy to let the others get the limelight – he will do his talking on the course. Tee times: Thursday 12:00 p.m. (ET) off 1st tee; Friday 7:30 a.m. off 10th tee Pat Perez, Charley Hoffman, Graeme McDowell: The last three champions of the event line up together. Perez comes in not only as the defending champion but also the FedExCup leader this season after his win at the CIMB Classic. He is the man with a target on his back. Chasing him down is Hoffman, who has good karma going for him after donating all his winnings from last week ($98,600) to the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. McDowell showed some sneaky form last week, coming home strong for a top-10… can he recapture his best at a happy hunting ground? Tee times: Thursday 12:10 p.m. (ET) off 1st tee; Friday 7:34 a.m. off 10th tee

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