In a year of unforeseen plot twists and turns, maybe the greatest one of all (at least on the course) has actually come today as Phil Mickelson leads the Travelers Championship after two rounds in his very first start as a 50-year-old.
As you know by now, if youve been following along at all this week, this is not a drill. Mickelson has been fantastic for 2 straight days in Connecticut where he is a previous two-time winner and now takes a slim lead into Saturdays Round 3. Lets delve into his second round, whos chasing and how its all going to decrease this weekend at TPC River Highlands.
Prescient, I understand. Mickelson backed up his Thursday 64 with a 7-under 63 on Friday and leads the occasion after 36 holes of play at TPC River Highlands. Even more incredibly, he was playing along with possibly the most popular player on Tour– Bryson DeChambeau– as well as the finest gamer in the world– Rory McIlroy.
Hes second in the field from tee to green and (I cant believe Im typing this) driving it wonderfully so far this week; hitting 19 of 28 fairways for Mickelson is like a lesser gamer striking them all. Mickelson has a chance to sign up with both lists this weekend.
Hes the 2019 SEC Player of the Year from Vanderbilt and Ben Hogan Award semifinalist (others consist of Viktor Hovland, Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa– maybe youve heard of them?). The former is interesting due to the fact that Gordon is an excellent gamer who has a terrific future ahead of him on the PGA Tour. The latter could foreshadow a weekend fade provided that hes rolling it at an unsustainable clip.
Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Brendon Todd, Marc Leishman, Brendan Steele (-9)– When a gamer shoots 68-63 over the first two days, we applaud them for having all the momentum going into the weekend. When they shoot 63-68 like Xander Schauffele did, we worry they may be stalling out prior to the third round. Schauffele is one of the 10 finest gamers in the world, and since hes in the top 10 going into this weekend, hes one of the favorites to win at TPC River Highlands.
Rory was quite average on Friday at TPC River Highlands. The good thing for him is that he raced out early on Thursday to that 7-under 63, so hell still have a late tee time on Saturday in Round 3. He did not hit the ball well at all in Round 2, however the excellent news if youre a Rory fan is that he still hasnt made a putt. Through the very first two rounds, hes made just 4 putts over 8 feet while hes made 23 under 3 feet. Hell win if that turns at all this weekend.
T10. Kevin Streelman, Kevin Na, Sung Kang, Zach Johnson, Viktor Hovland, Patton Kizzire, Abraham Ancer, Troy Merritt, Bryson DeChambeau, Seung-Yul Noh (-8)– I like a course where both Zach Johnson and Viktor Hovland can have this sort of success. Their video games might not possibly be more various– Hovland hits it basic discrepancies past Johnson and Johnson has a brief video game Hovland could only dream of– yet here we are at 9 under entering into the weekend. It would be even much better if they got a tee time together to accentuate the point.
3 takeaways.
– Collin Morikawas streak of 22 straight made cuts to begin his profession stops 3 shy of Tiger Woods record of 25 straight to begin a pro career. Morikawa is no doubt drained pipes after nearly winning the Charles Schwab Challenge and laboring to make it at the RBC Heritage. Hes going to be actually excellent for a really very long time, and the 22 made cuts in a row are proof of how excellent he is already.
– Player to keep an eye on as we go into Round 3 on Saturday: Sergio Garcia. He had a remarkable weekend at Harbour Town recently, and hes in the top 20 again in strokes acquired tee to green, even if his position on the leaderboard doesnt show it.
– Another weekend, another fabulous leaderboard. Tee times will be early on Saturday due to anticipated inclement weather, which in fact feels type of normal provided the present sports landscape. Im fired up for Saturday early morning with this board, which has all of it: current elite novices, among the 10 finest golf enthusiasts ever, the very best player in the world, studs from both Ryder Cup groups and the Bryson robotic. If you cant get delighted about that group handling a course thats dying to supply a 59, then I dont know whats going to wind you up properly.
CBS Sports was with you the entire method upgrading this story with the current scores, updates and highlights from the Travelers Championship below. Inspect out the live ratings at the top of this story or a more comprehensive leaderboard.
Mickelson has been fantastic for two straight days in Connecticut where he is a previous two-time winner and now takes a slim lead into Saturdays Round 3. Lets jump into his second round, whos chasing and how its all going to go down this weekend at TPC River Highlands.
The excellent thing for him is that he raced out early on Thursday to that 7-under 63, so hell still have a late tee time on Saturday in Round 3. He did not hit the ball well at all in Round 2, however the excellent news if youre a Rory fan is that he still hasnt made a putt. Through the very first two rounds, hes made just 4 putts over 8 feet while hes made 23 under 3 feet.
