FORT WORTH, Texas — Much like the tap that finished his most memorable round, shortly before 1 p.m. on Thursday Phil Mickelson wowed his adoring fans with another impressive putt, this for birdie.
The only tiny difference between the final putt of his final round on Day One of the Charles Schwab Challenge and his last shot of the PGA Championship is that this one improved his score to 3 over par.
“Yeah, I didn’t play well. I shot 3-over,” he said after his day ended. “But I won the PGA, so ...”
Typically that helps take the sting out of a bad round.
Phil is full. As much as it hurts to admit this, he should have skipped Fort Worth this year.
No one could have blamed him.
Much like Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson used their ability to attract golf’s more relevant names to their PGA tournaments, Charles Schwab has the same power to attract talent.
Phil and Chuck are buddies, and there is a better than 100% chance that the reason Phil did not cancel his trip to Fort Worth a few days after winning the PGA Championship in South Carolina is because of this friendship.
Less than a week after he defied 50 with one of the most impressive four days of golf ever played by a man in his position, on Thursday he looked like a exhausted golfer.
Because he is.
If you hope to see Phil play Fort Worth in 2021, you better do it Friday.
Charles Schwab may wield enough influence to attract Phil to play Colonial and the tournament that bears his name, but all of that money can’t make Mickelson’s putter work or his driver consistently find the fairways.
If Phil makes the cut in Fort Worth it will almost be as much of a surprise as his win Sunday.
“It was almost like I was trying a little too hard, and I wasn’t just calm and let it happen, and I was a little bit antsy,” he said. “What would be the word? Unsettled would be the word. Like I just couldn’t quite get calmed down in that same frame of mind. ... I know even though I didn’t play well today, my game is not far off. I’ve been playing well.”
Hard to argue with that.
Meanwhile, one of his playing partners played like a man who has regained his game. Jordan Spieth increasingly looks like Jordan Spieth as opposed to the golfer formerly known as Jordan Spieth.
At the end of his day, Spieth’s minus-7 was in first place, with Sergio Garcia moving up the board.
Spieth and Garcia finished the day tied for first.
Sergio is 41. Phil is nearly 51.
Mickelson looked tired from his first tee shot of the day. He should be.
A 31-year-old would be tired if he tried to maintain this schedule.
Mickelson played on Sunday in a dramatic finale in South Carolina. By Tuesday, he was in Fort Worth.
Starting at 6:50 a.m. on Wednesday, Phil was at Colonial for the pro am, where he played nine holes before shutting it down.
On Thursday at 8:15 a.m., he started this PGA Tour event at No. 10 with a par.
Then he bogeyed his second and third holes of the day, and that effectively summed up his round of golf.
He birdied only hole on the front nine, and another bogey before the turn put him well back of a field that figures to have a cut line around par or 1 over.
Phil’s back nine wasn’t much different than the front. He bogeyed twice and ended his first round with that nice birdie putt.
But after every shot, he could hear the fans. Even on the shots he wanted back, they all cheered what he did in South Carolina.
“It feels incredible because it’s been a long time since somebody has congratulated me for my play,” he said. “It felt great, and that’s a moment, that’s a week, that’s a tournament, that’s a win that I’ll cherish forever, so I enjoy when people say that.”
Phil’s achievement at the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge will not be that he won another plaid jacket, but that he actually showed up to even try.
You can thank Chuck Schwab himself for that.
