Mickelson holds FRB lead
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) – Cheered on by tens of thousands who consider him their hometown hero, Phil Mickelson forged a four-shot lead over Kevin Na through three rounds of the FBR Open, a giant party that happens to have a golf tournament going through it. Mickelson, who tied the course record with a 60 on Friday, shot a 5-under 66 – with birdies on the final two holes – on Saturday for a 14-under 199 total on the 7,216-yard Tournament Players Club course.
“It was a fun round,” Mickelson said. “I mean, there’s a lot of people out there. It was pretty interesting. It felt like I shot over par because of yesterday, but it was good enough to get in the lead.”
He leads going into a final round for the first time since last year’s Masters, and then he was tied with Chris DiMarco.
Na, at 21 the youngest player on the PGA Tour, began the day tied for the lead with Mickelson, and still was even through 14, but his second shot went into the water on the 15th hole, then he missed a short putt to save par.
“From there, that crowd pulling for Phil so much and that little bit of, what do you call it, misstep kind of shook me up a little bit,” Na said, “and affected me on the last couple of holes.”
Na bogeyed the 16th and finished with a 70, leaving him four back at 10 under going into the final round of the $5.2 million event.
Four were tied at 9 under – K.J. Choi, Harrison Frazar, Kenny Perry and Steve Flesch. Mark Calcavecchia and David Toms were 8 under. Toms got to 10 under but hit his tee shot into the water on the 14th for a double bogey.
The FBR event – formerly the Phoenix Open – draws the biggest crowd of any PGA tournament. An estimated 165,000 people came on a perfect, sun-baked Saturday – a single-day record for a tournament that draws about a half-million.
“Awesome, isn’t it?” Mickelson said. “Every year here is an amazing experience for all the players because of how many people we get here. You know, we average 40,000 or 50,000 on the tour, and here we had 165,000. This is amazing.”
Practically every one of the revelers was cheering on Mickelson.
“He’s the desert son,” Flesch said, “and that’s the way it should be.”
Mickelson took a two-shot lead on the par-3, 162-yard 16th, acknowledged as the most raucous hole in golf. An estimated 7,000 fans crowd around the bowl-shaped hole.
They did the “wave” for five rotations as Mickelson approached, then chanted “Master’s Champ!” and “A-S-U!” for the golfer who was a three-time NCAA champion at Arizona State and lived in Scottsdale for many years before moving to Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., in December of 2001. A group of fans wore green jackets in honor of Mickelson’s long-awaited his long Masters triumph a year ago.
The rowdy bunch are known to boo bad shots, but mostly they refrained when Mickelson’s tee shot sailed into the bunker left of the green.
“It was worthy of a boo,” Mickelson said.
Na, meanwhile, made the green but was far from the pin, and the boos rang out, along with chants of “Sha-na-na-na, hey, hey, goodbye.”
Na proceeded to three-put for a bogey, and Mickelson sank the 12-footer to save par as the crowd erupted.
“You can’t describe the feeling from a player’s standpoint to have that many people around one hole and you get a good shot or make a good putt,” Mickelson said.
Mickelson followed with a birdie on the par-4, 332-yard 17th, where he had an eagle on Friday, then capped his round with a birdie before a huge throng on the par-4, 438-yard 18th.
Mickelson had six birdies, and his first bogey since the first round.
Na stayed with Mickelson most of the afternoon and took the lead with a birdie that put him to 12-under on the 11th hole. But he bogeyed the next hole to drop back even.
“You know, I was right up there putting pressure on Phil,” Na said. “I was ahead of him. I caught a few bad breaks coming in. I’m very happy that I made that last putt to stay in the last group. I’m still in this tournament. I’m four back. A great round tomorrow can do it, finish it off.”