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Third Round of the U.S. Open Becomes Battle for Par A Bridesmaid Five Times, Mickelson Hopes His Big Day Is Here
(35 minutes later)
For much of the third round of the United States Open, it looked like poor, disparaged Merion Golf Club would come out the biggest winner, with a crop of contenders looking like a pack of tortoises vying to inch ahead of each other to reach the seemingly unreachable territory under par. ARDMORE, Pa. — It took five and a half hours for Phil Mickelson to secure the pole position for Sunday’s United States Open finish, which was nothing compared with how long he has pined for a victory in this national championship.
But then, Phil Mickelson came grinning up the final fairways, playing an uncharacteristically conservative game and sliding in birdie putts at the perfect time. He hit great approach shots on Nos. 15, 16 and 17 and when his birdie putt on the 17th stayed true and dropped, the crowd erupted as if awakened from a slumber. Mickelson played his first United States Open as an amateur in 1990 and finished 29th. In 21 subsequent starts, he has finished runner-up a record five times. With an even-par round of 70 on Saturday, Mickelson took the 54-hole lead at Merion Golf Club at one-under 209. He is the only player under par.
That birdie, in conjunction with a bogey by Luke Donald, gave Mickelson the outright lead at two-under par heading into the final hole. Donald had held that lead for a stretch until plunking his tee shot on the par-3 17th into the greenside bunker and failing to sink the par putt. For all its ups and downs, Mickelson’s round, which included a birdie-bogey finish, was “fun,” he said. In a television interview with NBC, Mickelson said, “I can’t wait to get back out playing. I feel really good ball-striking, I feel good on the greens, and I think it’s going to take an under-par round tomorrow.”
A few minutes earlier, Hunter Mahan and Charl Schwartzel had shared a slice of the lead with Donald, but both ran into all kinds of trouble on Nos. 17 and 18. Tied for second, one stroke behind Mickelson, is the trio of Hunter Mahan (69), Charl Schwartzel (69) and Steve Stricker (70), who is looking for his first major title in 59 starts.
Mahan had just jumped to two under a hole earlier with a magnificent approach shot that he all but tapped in for birdie on No. 16, but he sailed his next drive into the rough and could not save par on the 17th. Schwartzel plunked his approach into a bunker and suffered the same fate. They matched those woes on No. 18 as well. Only once before, in 2006 when he recorded one of his second-place finishes, has Mickelson held the 54-hole lead in this tournament. For Mickelson, who will turn 43 on Sunday, and Stricker, 46, Father Time is perhaps their greatest foe.
But the crowd was more than mollified by Mickelson, who had first riled up the crowd with two straight birdies on Nos. 10 and 11 to pull himself back to one under. He had started the day as one of only two players under par after two rounds but two early bogeys had dropped him back. He was playing against type and going the conservative route to most holes, but could not get any putts to drop until after he made the turn. He had great chances at birdie on Nos. 15 and 16 but his putts trickled just left of the hole to his disbelief. He finally got one to fall on No. 17. At the opposite end of the time spectrum are the four amateurs who survived the 73-man cut. They were led by Michael Kim, the University of California standout who was named the Pacific-12 men’s golfer of the year this past season as a sophomore.
Mahan and Hunter had settled back at even par with matching scores of 69. Joining them at even par was Steve Stricker, who shot a 70. At 19, Kim is a year younger than the amateur Francis Ouimet was when he won the 1913 United States Open. With a third-round 71, he gave himself an outside chance to mark the 100th anniversary of Ouimet’s victory by matching it.
A pack at even par had, at one point, included Michael Kim, the 19-year-old amateur who plays for the University of California. He was surging with four birdies on the back nine, but a bogey on No. 16 turned him the other way. A double bogey on No. 17 and a bogey on the final hole pushed him back to four over. Playing in his first United States Open, Kim arrived at the 16th hole two strokes off the lead. He was at even par for the tournament and three-under for his round. In the scoring area, Webb Simpson, the defending United States Open champion, emerged from signing for his second consecutive 75 for a 54-hole total of 11-over, said: “If it was his first tournament on tour on an easy golf course it would be remarkable. To do it here on this golf course under this pressure is great.”
Despite doubts that Merion was no longer long enough or tough enough to provide the prototypical (read: punishing) Open test, the going has been anything but easy. The waves of rain that inundated the course all week did not succeed in turning the greens into spongy welcome mats, as some feared, but they did add a layer of squishiness to the rough, only deepening its ball-swallowing potential. Kim stumbled down the stretch, finishing bogey-double bogey-bogey to stand at four-over 214. He may have failed to become the first amateur to crack the top-5 after 54 holes of a United States Open since Jim Simons took the lead here in 1971, but he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
The early holes did yield a few birdies. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, playing together for a third straight day after they each finished the second round at three over par, both walked off No. 1 with birdies. Both quickly found trouble on subsequent holes. McIlroy drove into trouble and took bogeys on both Nos. 2 and 3, and Woods joined him with a bogey on No. 3 and his backward spiral had begun. Woods carded seven bogeys — including a short par putt that rimmed out on No. 16 — and sat at nine over with a frustrating round of 76. McIlroy was only one stroke better at eight over. “At the start of the week, I thought making the cut would be good,” said Kim, who acknowledged taking several peeks at the scoreboards during his round. When he saw how close he was to the lead, he allowed himself to think about winning and his body began thrumming with adrenaline. Not coincidentally, that is when he made the first of his three 5s at the end.
“I didn’t make anything today,” Woods said. “I just couldn’t get a feel for them, some putts were slow, some were fast and I had a tough time getting my speed right.” “I didn’t feel that nervous, but I definitely think I was, looking back on it,” Kim said. “I thought it was super cool to see my name on that big leader board next to names like Schwartzel, Mickelson, Donald, all those guys.”
Charley Hoffman, who finished his second round in disastrous fashion with a triple bogey on the par-4 No. 10, managed two birdies in his first four holes to push himself to two over. The second one came on the par-5 No. 4, when he played his third shot out of a water hazard by taking off his shoes, rolling up his pants and chipping in his fourth shot from off the green for the birdie.He finished up at six over. Justin Rose was two years younger than Kim in 1998 when he tied for fourth at his country’s national championship, the British Open, as an amateur. He turned pro the next day — a move Jack Nicklaus counseled Kim not to make after presenting him recently with a collegiate player of the year award that bears his name — and experienced instant failure.
Nicolas Colsaerts had an adventurous start to his round, going from a double bogey on No. 1 to an eagle on No. 2 to a bogey on No. 3. He settled in at two over until running into huge trouble, driving under a tree on No. 18. A triple bogey dropped him to five over. Rose, 32, has said his early struggles as a pro have made his subsequent successes all the sweeter. A four-time PGA Tour winner, Rose is well positioned for his first major championship in 37 starts. After a 71, he is tied for fifth at one-over 141 with Luke Donald (71). Sergio García, another player who had major success at an early age, finishing second at the 1999 PGA Championship at 19,  is making his 59th major start and will not experience victory.
Saturday’s king of calamity was Sergio Garcia, who barely made the cut and played several holes worth of golf on No. 15. He hit three balls out of bounds and walked off with a 10. That sent him skyrocketing to 14 over par. He rebounded a bit to finish his round at 11 over. García, 33, fought back to make it to the weekend. Standing at seven-over after his first eight holes, he played the next 28 in one-under. His third round unraveled at the par-4 15th hole, his fifth of the day, when he hit three balls out of bounds on his way to a 10. García played the other 17 holes in one-under to post a 75 and a three-day total of plus-11.
While Woods grabs his share of attention in his effort to break his major tournament drought, Mickelson is also trying to break a drought. He has never won the United States Open despite five second-place finishes, most recently in 2009. The tournament does not naturally suit his high-risk, high-reward game because Open courses rarely reward risk. “Funny enough, I only hit one bad shot today and I mad 10,” García said ruefully.
And Merion has followed that trend nicely despite all the hand-wringing. Mickelson knows what it is like to have his United States Open title hopes buried by a bad hole or two. In 2004, he held a one-stroke lead with two holes to play but three-putted from five feet on the second-to-last hole for a bogey and finished second to Retief Goosen.
In 2006, he had a one-stroke lead with one hole to play, hit a wild drive and a worse second shot on his way to a double bogey and a one-stroke loss to Geoff Ogilvy.
In 2009, he was tied for the lead with Lucas Glover five holes to play but made two bogeys on the way in.
In 2013, will Mickelson finally close out the victory he desires more than any other? He has Donald, Mahan, Schwartzel and Stricker nipping at his heels but Mickelson’s steepest challenge is likely to come from the memory loop in his head.