Sometimes, Phil Mickelson can just be too into it.
Mickelson shot a 1-under 70 in Saturday’s third round of The Barclays at Liberty National Golf Course, and is at 3-under for the tournament. The nine shots between him and leaders Gary Woodland and Matt Kuchar is substantial, and the fan-favorite, who won the Open Championship last month, has a good reason why.
“I’m a fairly emotional golfer in that I put a lot into it,” Mickelson said. “When it’s going great, I’m really on, and when it doesn’t, it’s hard for me to get it turned around.”
Mickelson had one of the most resonating victories in golf history at Muirfield in Scotland, where he shot a final-round 66 and wrapped up his fifth career major championship. But since then, he has played in two tournaments, finishing 21st at the World Golf Championships event in Akron, Ohio, and 72nd at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester.
“Right after I came back from the British where I was playing well, I had a week away from the clubs and it just didn’t quite set it,” he said. “I feel like I’m on the right path. … If I can put together a good, solid round Sunday, stay focused, it should give me some momentum next week.”
* New Jersey product Morgan Hoffman seemed to be in good shape with a first-round 67, but crumbled in the morning when he had to come out and complete his second round.
After not being able to finish on Friday because of darkness, Hoffman started by missing a 11-foot putt for par on the second hole, which brought him to 5-under for the tournament — still in contention. He then played the rest of the front nine with two more bogies and two doubles, and with three balls in the water over the final three holes, the 24-year-old from Franklin Lakes shot a second-round 76 and missed the cut by one shot.
* Around 2 p.m., there was a loud roar from the most remote point of the golf course, and less than 10 minutes later, there was another.
The first was because K.J. Choi made a hole-in-one on the par-3 14th, bouncing a wedge shot once before the ball found darkness. Not to be outdone, in the group behind Choi was lefty Greg Chalmers, who banged another hole-in-one on the 135-yard hole, with the Statue of Liberty almost on top of the tee box.
They were the first two aces of the tournament.
* An hour after the back-to-back aces, long-hitting Bubba Watson holed out his second shot from 95 yards on the par-4 12th for an eagle. Watson will start today at 7-under, five off the lead.