CROMWELL, Conn. – At one point Friday at the Travelers Championship, Phil Mickelson was staring down a missed cut in his first event after a major championship for the fourth straight time.
Four holes later, he was punching his ticket to the weekend.
Mickelson was 1 over with four holes to play Friday at TPC River Highlands and in danger of missing the cut on the course he won at in 2001 and ’02. But three birdies in his final four holes put Mickelson at 2 under, gifting the Connecticut crowd another two days of the 51-year-old recent PGA champion.
“I mean, I’m happy that I have a chance to play the weekend,” Mickelson said. “I’m not scoring the way I need to on some critical holes, namely No. 13 on the back, and 15. Need to play those holes 4 under par. Played them 2 over. Those six shots, that’s the difference.”
Mickelson bogeyed Nos. 1 and 2 to begin his second nine and had his work cut out for him to get out of trouble. But he was able to salvage his tournament with the three birdies, an easy tap-in at the par-5 sixth, an 8-foot make at the par-3 eighth and 2-foot conversion at the par-4 ninth.
“I mean, I was 1 under for the tournament, even for the day making the turn,” he said. “Bogeying 1 and 2 is just pathetic. They’re two birdie holes. Easy, short wedges in, and I hit two bad drives and ended up making two bogeys. Gosh, after that I knew I was in trouble cut-wise, because there were some holes back into the wind that were going to play long, like 4 and 5, and I had my work cut out for me.”
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Mickelson said he wasn’t sure of the cut line while playing, but once he finished the day at 2 under, he knew for sure he’d be playing the weekend.
He had previously missed cuts in his first starts after this year’s Masters and U.S. Opens and last fall’s Masters.
“So I’ve got to do the simple things well and I ended up doing the hard things, sure birdieing three of the last four to make the cut,” he said. “But I’m excited to play, and I need a couple more rounds. Gosh, it’s a course that we saw with Jim Furyk you can get hot, make a move.”