The biggest storyline heading into The Greenbrier Classic was the inclusion of Phil Mickelson, who shocked the golf world last month when he abruptly parted ways with Jim ‘Bones’ MacKay, his caddy of 25 years.
While no permanent replacement has been named for the five-time major winner, Phil’s brother, Tim Mickelson, will be on his bag for the remainder of the season.
Their performance at The Greenbrier proved one thing: more time is needed to accurately judge the move. A final round, Sunday-low 6-under 64 propelled him to T20 and had Phil leaving on a high note.
However, he was largely irrelevant over the first three rounds, shooting 67-72-71 to sit at T61 after 54 holes. It was the first time Mickelson has made the cut in four tries at The Greenbrier.
Bullets
- In his first tournament of his post-Bones era, Mickelson was phenomenal on Sunday. He shot a 64 in which he carded seven birdies, including five on the back nine. As always, Phil was tremendous on and around the greens for most of the week.
- While Mickelson was very up-and-down throughout the week, one thing was constant: he had exactly 10 pars in each of his four rounds. He did a much better job on Sunday avoiding the big numbers that hurt his earlier rounds.
- Phil’s Sunday round was his best in regards to both fairways hit and greens hit. He was 8th in the field for the week in putts per GIR.
- Mickelson’s next start is slated to be The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, an event Phil won in 2013 and finished runner-up last year.
Quotable
“It’s nice to get a little bit of momentum and to finally shoot a number that I feel like I’ve been playing well enough to shoot”
–Phil Mickelson
