Phil Mickelson’s fate at the PGA Championship—his 32nd start in the major—was decided on Thursday, an eight-over 79 at Quail Hollow in the first round essentially guaranteeing a missed cut in his future. That would deny Mickelson the chance to claim some history; he started the week tied with Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd for the most cuts made in the PGA Championship at 27.
It was also a crazy bit of deja vu for Mickelson; he shot a opening-round 79 when the PGA was previously played at Quail Hollow in 2017. The two scores are the highest he has ever shot in 116 rounds at the PGA.
Friday’s second round, then, would be a matter of personal pride. Would Lefty be committed to making his best effort or resigned to his early exit and simply going through the motions before heading out of town?
To his credit, it was the former as Mickelson grinded out a one-over 72. And when we say grinded out, we mean GRINDED OUT.
Take a look at Mickelson’s scorecard and you will see one of the craziest even-par rounds in recent memory.
Yep, that’s seven birdies from Mickelson, but also four bogeys and a jaw-dropping quadruple-bogey 8 on the 12th hole.
And when we say jaw-dropping, we mean it. After finding the fairway off the tee with a 323-yard drive, Mickelson’s second shot came to rest in the left greenside bunker. That’s where things went off the rails … Mickelson leaving his ball in the bunker not once, not twice, but three times.
🚨😲🏌️ #WATCH — LIV Golf star Phil Mickelson takes 4 strokes to get out of a bunker in round 2 of the PGA Championship
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) May 16, 2025
Here’s a different look at it:
Impressively, Mickelson bounced back from the 12th with back-to-back birdies. But with a missed cut, after an MC last year at Valhalla, it’s the first time in Mickelson’s career at the PGA that he had gone home early in back-to-back years.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
