By Kent Gray
After a topsy-turvy outward nine played in 37 strokes, Phil Mickelson’s Saudi International debut was teetering on the brink of no return at two-over-par on Thursday. In King Abdullah City fresh from a pair of missed cuts to open the new PGA Tour calendar year, the 49-year-old needed to conjure some old Lefty magic to ensure he didn’t have too far to climb to make the weekend at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, much less contend.

On cue, the world No.86 suddenly became the streaky version of “Phil being Phil” as he roared home in 29 strokes to sign for a four-under 66 and an overnight share of 8th place, just two strokes adrift of co-leaders Graeme McDowell and Gavin Green.

RELATED: Graeme McDowell and Gavin Green fire 64s for share of Saudi lead

Mickelson’s inward nine was paved in red with a cluster of three birdies from the 11th-13th and three more from 14th to 16th incredibly intersected by a bogey. But there was also a final gain on 18 as the 44-time PGA Tour winner and 2013 Open Championship hero played his way into contention.

“Yeah, it was a great back nine,” Mickelson said in the understatement of the $3.5 million European Tour event thus far.

“Part of the challenge for me is that I feel like I’ve been playing well but mentally I haven’t been as sharp. I haven’t been visualising and I haven’t been seeing the shot clear. It was certainly evident early in the round where I made a couple of shots that weren’t that hard that I made difficult.

“But the back nine, things really started to come together. Meaning I hit a lot of good shots. I started making the putts, and made a lot of birdies, and it was just a good back nine that gave me a good chance heading into tomorrow. I feel like my game is a lot sharper than I’ve been scoring, so it was nice having that back nine.”

There are few better than Mickelson when his putter warms up, as it proved late on Thursday.

“Hit a lot of good shots and made the putts. It’s not like the putts are easy. The greens are rolling beautifully but factoring the wind and the break and so forth, it wasn’t the easiest. It was a fun challenge, and just continued to kind of be patient.

“There was one on maybe 14 — 13, kind of up off the tier and fell in. That was really fun because I haven’t really made a good, long one like that, and I didn’t expect to make that one, and it just kind of circled in. That’s a cool feeling to see those go in.”

Mickelson enjoyed being pulled along by playing partner McDowell too.

“Certainly seeing how easy he made the course look, is encouraging, knowing that, yeah, you can do it. The way he was playing, so steady and solid, and even with one little hiccup, he still shot a round of 6-under par in tough conditions. It’s very impressive.

“The great thing about this golf course is that it’s playable in tough conditions. So if you hit good shots, you get rewarded. It’s not always beating you up, but you have to hit really good shots to have them pay off in these type of conditions. I think without the wind tomorrow, we’ll be able to be more aggressive in the morning and make some more birdies than we did today.

“It will play easier, but you still have to hit good shots and make putts to make birdies.”

The post After early struggle, the real Phil Mickelson returns with a back-nine paved in red appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
PINEHURST, N.C. — Austin Squires woke up at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning uncertain if his amateur golf career was already over. Thirteen hours later, he was the talk of the 119th U.S. Amateur Championship.

The in-between was a crazy odyssey that began by finding out the cutline for match play at Pinehurst Resort had moved from four over to five over when stroke-play resumed at 7:20 a.m. A few dozen players had to wrap up their 36 holes after a weather delay on Tuesday prevented everyone from finishing. With the new cutline, Squires was one of 27 golfers who would playoff for the last three match-play spots.

The 22-year-old, who finished up school at the University of Cincinnati in the spring, then survived a four-hole, three-hour, 46-minute playoff to get the 64th seed, an ordeal that included waiting for roughly an hour between holes as the huge group whittled its way down.

RELATED: The U.S. Amateur playoff might be the most sadistic thing in golf

His reward? Facing medallist Brandon Wu, fresh off arguably the best summer of any amateur golfer in the world.

To his credit, Squires didn’t flinch, bolstered by the confidence that he regained from surviving the playoff. He never trailed in the match with Wu, taking the lead for good on the 10th hole at Pinehurst No. 2 and closing out the recent Stanford grad with a par on the 18th hole for a 2-up victory.

“It was a very long, stressful day,” Squires said. “It was kind of nice that I already played a couple holes before the match. Granted it was No. 4, which is a little different. but it was still nice. It was a little easier to get in a rhythm.”

It’s hard to call Squires’ win much of an upset. He did reach the quarterfinals at the U.S. Amateur last year at Pebble Beach.

“Obviously anything can happen in match play,” said Wu, who was only able to make one birdie during the match. “All 64 guys that made it to match play are incredible players.”

Brandon Wu

Had the cutline not moved, and Squires not found his way into the playoff, he said that this would have been the end of his amateur career. He is set to turn pro and play in a pre-qualifier for the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School later this month. The reason he hadn’t turned pro yet was that he was exempt into the U.S. Amateur thanks to his quarterfinal berth last year.

“I knew I wanted to give this tournament another shot,” said Squires, who faces Stefano Mazzoli of Italy in the Round of 32 on Thursday morning. “I love amateur golf. I wish I could stay an amateur forever, but I want to make a career out of golf. There is not a lot of money in amateur golf.”

Wu was one of several top seeds who fell in the first round on Wednesday. Six of the 10 highest-ranked players in the match-play bracket fell on Wednesday.

Additionally, 2019 U.S. Walker Cup team member Stewart Hagestad lost to Maxwell Moldovan. Hagestad, at 28, was the oldest player to reach match play (and the lone mid-amateur to do it), but fell to the second-youngest player (17) remaining in the field.

A few big names as well as players with North Carolina ties did, however, win their matches and will be back on Thursday. They include Akshay Bhatia, the junior phenom from Wake Forest, N.C., and Alex Fitzpatrick, who plays at Wake Forest and is the younger brother of former U.S. Amateur champion Matt Fitzpatrick. Bhatia won his match over R.J. Manke, 3 and 2. While Fitzpatrick defeated reigning British Amateur champion James Sugrue, 5 and 4.

The post Austin Squires becomes the talk of the U.S. Amateur with his playoff heroics, ‘upset’ of No. 1 seed Brandon Wu appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
That Brandon Wu would hold a one-shot lead after Day 1 of stroke play at the 119th U.S. Amateur Championship is hardly a surprise. The recent Stanford grad who helped the Cardinal win the NCAA title in May is in the midst of an impressive summer run that includes becoming the first amateur golfer to qualify for the U.S. and British Opens in the same calendar year since 1967. Wu finished T-35 at Pebble Beach (and was awarded his college diploma behind the 18th green) before missing the cut at Royal Portrush.

But there’s a backstory that makes Wu’s opening five-under 65 at Pinehurst No. 4 on Monday all the more impressive. Just the day before, Wu, the eighth-ranked player on the World Amateur Golf Ranking, was competing in the final round of the Pan American Games . . . in Lima, Peru. A closing even-par 71 left him in fourth place as an individual and helped the mixed U.S. team win a gold medal in the four-day event.

Afterwards, Wu went to the airport and took a red-eye flight through Miami to Pinehurst, where he arrived mid-morning on Monday, a few hours ahead of his 2:45 p.m. tee time (USGA officials gave him an afternoon time to accommodate his schedule since he was representing the country in an international competition).

By participating in the Pan Am Games for the U.S., Wu had to forgo weekend practice rounds at Pinehurst. However, the 22-year-old from Scarsdale, N.Y., visited the North Carolina resort in early July, getting the chance to play the newly re-designed No. 4 and the fabled No. 2 course.

Wu showed few signs of fatigue on Monday, as he closed out his round with three birdies and an eagle on the 14th through 17th holes. A par on the 18th still gave him the competitive course record.

“I tried to manage my sleep as well as I could,” Wu said. “I slept great on the two flights up here, and then took a quick nap before I teed off for about two hours. I actually feel pretty good.”

He’ll need to as Wu has a quick turnaround on Tuesday morning, teeing off the 11th tee at the No. 2 course at 9:30 a.m.

The top-64 players after Tuesday’s second round of stroke play will advance to match play, which will be contested from Wednesday through Sunday’s scheduled 36-hole final.

Ed’s Note:  MENA Tour prodigy Rayhan Thomas had an opening round to forget, carding a 10-over-par 80 to sit in T-262 place – 15 shots off Wu’s first-round pace. It’s not all bad for the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club member even though he looks unlikely to advance to the matchplay phase at Pinehurst; Thomas is headed to Oklahoma State University for the next chapter in his golf education.

RELATED: MENA Tour trailblazer Rayhan Thomas is about to take his golf education to the next level

The post Brandon Wu arrives off red-eye flight from Peru, still shoots 65 to lead U.S. Amateur; Tough start for Dubai’s Thomas appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.