For years, Phil Mickelson has played Phil ball: he plays to win Ping G20 Fairway Wood
at all costs. He's not trying to make a check or get a top 10 to get world ranking points. Heck, most of the time he's not even thinking about making the cut. There are only a few weeks a year probably where he's not thinking about birdieing every hole. He's sometimes criticized for not playing safer, but he's always been a gambler.
"I'm going to try to make birdies, I'm going to play aggressive," Mickelson said on Wednesday. "And when I'm playing well, I make birdies and end up either in contention or winning, and when I don't have it, my mistakes are going to be big."
I have never heard a player better sum up his career and approach to the game. Phil takes the good with the bad because all of it comes out of a deep desire to win.
On Thursday in the first round of the Northern Trust Open, Mickelson shot a 5-under-par 66 to take the clubhouse first round lead. He has a 1-shot lead over J.B. Holmes and Hunter Mahan. Mickelson had six birdies and a bogey on a beautiful but windswept day at the Riviera Country Club. Mickelson, Holmes, and Mahan all played in the afternoon, where winds were calmer than they had been in the morning. Ping G20 Fairway Wood
When play was called at 5:42 local time, 30 players were still on the course. The first round will resume Friday morning.
"It was challenging today because Riviera doesn't give you great opportunities to run balls on to the green," Mickelson said. "Fortunately the greens were somewhat receptive, and that's why I think scores weren't extremely high.
"You could keep the ball underneath the wind, underneath the tree line and still get it to stop somewhat on the greens because they were receptive."
This was the best round for Holmes since he came back from brain surgery last September. No course is generally overly long for the 29-year-old, two-time PGA Tour winner, but with the howling 20-25 mph winds, stretched out Riviera.
"The wind definitely made the course a lot longer," Holmes said. "When it blows like this your ball striking has to be really precise.
"I'm not all back but it's close enough. I can dial it up. My swing speed is creeping back up to where it was last year. I felt real confident today. I didn't really let the bogeys bother me."
Mickelson didn't have a bogey in his first Ping G20 Fairway Wood until the par-3 16th hole, where he couldn't get up and down from the back fringe.