Phil Mickelson rolls back the years but has elite company on USPGA leaderboard

[ASFN Admin]

Full leaderboard and latest scores Padraig Harrington has seen enough. After watching playing partner Phil Mickelson rolling back the years whilst rolling in the putts in the first two rounds of the 1033rd US PGA Championship here, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain is ready to envisage history. “In the position Phil is, I expect him to contend, and I wouldn't put it past him being there on top at the end of the week,” Harrington said. “He has the bit between his teeth and believes he can do it in these conditions. You know what? Even second would now be a disappointment for Phil.” Mickelson is 51 next month and if Harrington’s prediction comes to pass, great chunks of golf’s folklore would need rewriting, most notably that he would smash Julius Boros’s record of oldest ever major-winner by more than two years. He would go into next month’s US Open with his career grand slam dream re-invigorated, having made a mockery of the US Golf Association’s special exemption it felt obliged to issue last week. Box office Phil Mickelson makes fans dream with unexpected charge into USPGA lead Yet more than any of this, it would give hope to written-off veterans and act as a bugle call for those with ear-trumpets everywhere. The ancient game would never seem quite the same again. Of course, these are early days and on one of the most demanding major tests that golf has ever witnessed, it is plainly foolish to think forward even a few holes never mind a few days, especially the likes of Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau figuring highly among yesterday’s later starters. But here was something about Mickelson in his second-round 69 that made romantic projection impossible to resist.

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