Five Holes of Golf, One Giant Leap for Mickelson
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Yesterday’s premature finish at the PGA Championship might have been terribly anti-climactic given the day’s pulsating events, but at least it has necessitated what could be the most exciting hour and a bit in the tournament’s history.
Twelve players will return to Baltusrol’s Lower Course this morning to complete their final rounds following the suspension of play yesterday evening due to inclement weather. Those dozen players will try to find the safety of the clubhouse ahead of the incredible Tiger Woods, who only scraped into the weekend field by birdieing the 18th on Friday, but who now holds the clubhouse lead at two under par after closing rounds of 66 and 68.
Among the dozen whose work is not quite done, six still have a legitimate chance of winning the year’s final major. Phil Mickelson currently holds the lead at four under and will resume on the 14th hole with a three-foot par putt. One stroke back are Australia’s Steve Elkington and Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, while Vijay Singh and Davis Love III are still within a shout at two under. Retief Goosen, at one under, has to finish with two birdies to leapfrog Woods and hope the others make a mess of the closing holes if he is to win his third major title.
Given the strange goings-on at Baltusrol yesterday – a day in which Mickelson held a four stroke lead after an eight-foot birdie at the fourth, but then found himself two behind Elkington after four bogies in five holes – you perhaps shouldn’t rule that out. But really, this is Mickelson’s tournament to lose.
As he said himself in a press conference last evening, the remaining holes are not among Baltusrol’s toughest, and the closing pair of par fives offer decent opportunities for birdies. Indeed, the 650-yard 17th, which Woods reached the back of with two prodigious strokes yesterday, ranks as the third-easiest hole on the course, while the 554-yard home hole is the easiest of the lot, playing more than half a stroke beneath its par.
The heat, humidity, and wind that tormented the field yesterday will likely have dissipated, and with overnight rain taking the sting out of the putting surfaces, those holes should be even more accommodating.
There’s no doubting that Mickelson is in a strong position, but one wonders how he will sleep tonight. The three-footer that remains at the 14th is certainly no gimme, and comes as the result of a badly misread six-foot birdie putt. Everyone knows what a classy putter he is (he ranks 17th this year on the PGA Tour), but he still doesn’t exude total confidence on the greens, and went to bed knowing that a miss would not only lose him the outright lead, but also a considerable degree of his composure.
Mickelson was careful to give the putt a very close look before heading off the course, however, so he should have no problem finding a similar putt on the practice green this morning and thus be in a good frame of mind when he faces the real thing. A par will settle him, and with the power to overcome the challenges of the final four holes, he will probably be looking to finish no worse than six under par.
That means Elkington, on the tee at the 16th, would need to birdie the last three holes to tie, and Bjorn, in the rough after his drive at the 15th, would need a similarly dramatic finish.
Woods, pleased with his weekend rounds but still no doubt seething after a first-round 75, must believe his 278 total will be a couple too many, but he will be watching closely and hitting a few balls to stay limber just in case the leaders falter. Had Tiger not uncharacteristically played the front-nines this weekend at a combined four-over par, had he three-putted just twice instead of five times, this whole discussion would be gratuitous.
With the flow of adrenalin halted and yesterday’s rhythm disrupted, it is quite conceivable that one or two of those leaders will find it hard to get going this morning and record a couple of bogies instead of the birdies they need. But surely one out of Mickelson, Elkington, Bjorn, Singh, and Love will succeed in denying Tiger his third major of the year.
Much will depend on Mickelson’s putt at the 14th. If he holes it expect him to bring it home safely. If he misses and the others fail to make the necessary birdies, we might have a playoff on our hands. And in a playoff involving players still fretting over missed chances, the smart money’s on Tiger.
But it won’t come to that . . . will it?