Phil Mickelson doesn't look Masters-ready after embarrassing round at LIV Golf Hong Kong
Phil Mickelson turned back the clock at Augusta National Golf Club last year for a miraculous runner-up finish at the Masters, but he won't be able to replicate that performance based on his recent play.
In the first round of LIV Golf Hong Kong at Hong Kong Golf Club, Mickelson stumbled to a 10-over 80 to put himself in dead last place in the 54-man field. Lefty finished the day four strokes worse than Anthony Kim, who was playing just his fourth competitive round since returning from a 12-year absence.
Mickelson's performance is even worse when you consider the golf course it came on. Hong Kong Golf Club is a tiny, 6,710-yard track that should be a breeze for players of his caliber. For reference, the average PGA Tour course measures longer than 7,300 yards. Mickelson was one of only 10 players who shot over par in the first round, and nearly half the field shot 3-under or better. The six-time major champion was the only player who didn't record a single birdie or eagle on Friday.
This wasn't anything new for Mickelson, either. The 53-year-old kicked off the 2024 LIV season with a T51 finish at Mayakoba and a T30 finish at Las Vegas. Coming into this week's event, Mickelson ranked 50th out of 54 players in driving accuracy, 48th in scrambling percentage and 42nd in greens in regulation percentage. Those stats are only going to look worse after this week.
Mickelson did finish T6 at Jeddah last week, his best finish in three tries at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club. He was even confident that strong performance would carry over to Hong Kong.
"It was a good week for me," Mickelson told reporters. "It was the best finish I've had out here. I started to find some things in my game, and I'm hoping to build on it and continue solid play going into Hong Kong's event. But there's a lot of positives for me to build on from last weekend."
Yeah, so much for that.
The silver lining for Mickelson is that he finished T35, T27, T30 and T41 in four LIV starts leading up to the 2023 Masters. Maybe he doesn't need any momentum to summon a bit of Augusta magic for the second straight year.
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