Phil Mickelson has five straight birdies on Fortinet back-nine, not 100% satisfied
With 18 holes left to play for Phil Mickelson on Tour in 2021, Lefty’s in contention going into Sunday at the Fortinet Championship, but yet he wasn’t fully content with his putting after Round 3.
Aside from his 2021 PGA Championship win, Lefty only has two top 10 finishes since the start of the 2019-20 season, but a third is in his sights after five birdies on the final six holes in Napa Valley showed once again the 51-year-old doesn’t always play his age.
Those birdies helped Mickelson jump eight spots up the leaderboard to T-8, four strokes off the lead, but his two bogeys on No. 7 and 12 were lingering in the six-time major winner’s mind as he headed right to the putting green after his final hole.
“So I just got on the tutor for a minute,” Mickelson said. I felt like I blocked a couple putts. I blocked two short ones, the one on 12, the one on 7, and I just wanted to work on that. So I feel like I was a little long in the stroke and kind of came up and out of it. If I keep it short and up, I can release into the finish and get the ball rolling online.”
Full-field scores from the Fortinet Championship
Despite Mickelson still believing there’s room for improvement, his putting continued to improve from his first two rounds in Napa. In Round 3 he was sixth in strokes gained: putting in the field, up from 38th on Day 1 and 21st on Day 2. He rolled in 123 feet worth of putts in Round 3, up 40 feet from his first two rounds.
However, after his bogey on No. 12, he changed his mentality on the greens, which paid off for five straight holes.
“I just felt like I had been putting really well all week and I just needed to settle down and let one go in, not force it,” he said. “I needed to get a couple of fairways hit because so much easier from the fairways getting to these pins. I just rolled a couple in, so it was nice.”
About six weeks ago, Mickelson started playing with an extension grip on his putter that goes up to his right forearm and he plans to keep rolling with that style of putting (pun intended).
“For a while, yeah, because it’s how I putted as a kid,” he said. “Like I always had a lot of forward press and all it’s doing now is getting in the same position as a kid, but it’s getting to that same position every time. I’m not overpressing, I’m not underpressing, so my launch characteristics when I get on the Quintic system is very consistent and that’s what I’m looking for.”
Max Homa, who Mickelson played with during his third round in Napa, would agree that Lefty has found a spark with the putter.
“[Mickelson] putted nice, he’s putting good,” Homa said after moved up 22 spots in the standings to T-2. “He’s hitting it a little straighter. You know, he holed some really good putts. Got on a run on that back nine, so it was cool. It’s always fun playing with a legend, you get to watch him just will that ball in the hole sometimes.”
However, the way Homa sprung up the leaderboard Saturday, Mickelson may have had a different opinion about playing with his fellow Southern California native.
“Then Max, playing as well as he did shooting 6 under on the back, made my round feel not as great, but it was still fun,” Mickelson said.