Leading the British Open on a moving day when nobody was moving (up anyway), Phil Mickelson hit a 2-iron hard left from the tee box on the 12th hole. Lefty got lucky: the gorse bush spit out Phil’s ball rather than swallowing it, giving him a reprieve that may just be responsible for who gets the Claret Jug on Sunday. In a mano-a-mano battle with Swedish star Henrik Stenson as the duo separated themselves from the field, Mickelson could have been bitten hard at No. 12. Instead, it went like this:
- Drive into the gorse bush
- After trying ten different stances, take a swing that rips through the gorse foliage and rockets the ball down the fairway — a near impossibility
- Hit an sky-scraping wedge that flies over the flag and backs up faster than a celebrity’s insensitive tweet
- Take a new, tinker-made claw grip, with his index finger straight down the shaft and roll in an 8-footer for par.
A train stops Phil Mickelson mid-swing at The Railway. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/1B15L4S2XX
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 16, 2016
Par. Nothing to it. Mickelson and Stenson will play for the Claret Jug tomorrow, barring a miracle by someone down the leaderboard — or repeated (less fortunate) visits by both men into the gorse. If Mickelson walks away with it, he will have the 12th hole on Saturday to credit. He’s rarely played a better one.
It’s on. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/FY2edjpm5b
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 16, 2016
