Four days after his big win at Pebble Beach, Phil Mickelson keeps right on rolling. Mickelson hit driver off the deck from just under 300 yards on the par-5 11th that led to a two-putt birdie, and he ended a gorgeous afternoon Thursday at Riviera by chipping in from 35 feet for birdie. That gave him a 5-under 66 and a one-shot lead in the Northern Trust Open.
Dating to the back nine of his second round at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Mickelson has made birdie or eagle on one-third of the holes he has played. And his streak of consecutive holes without a bogey finally ended at 49 on the par-3 16th.
No matter. He looked good with the putter and with his low, penetrating tee shots that he kept below the tree line on a windy day that prevented low scoring.
J.B. Holmes, in his fourth tournament since returning from brain surgery in September, played his final six holes without a par. His round ended with a 315-yard tee shot — a big drive in the cool air of Los Angeles in February — and an approach to 8 feet for birdie at No. 9, the second-toughest hole at Riviera.
That gave him a 4-under 67. He was tied with Hunter Mahan, whose 35-foot birdie at No. 5 sent him on a string of four straight birdies.
They all played in the afternoon, when the wind began to die late in the day.
Jonathan Byrd, who faced the chilly, blustery conditions of the morning, had a 68. He was joined by Carl Pettersson.
The first round was suspended by darkness with 30 players yet to finish the round, a typical occurrence at this tournament with 144-man field and limited daylight.
Mickelson is coming off an 8-under 64 in the final round at Pebble Beach, where he rallied from a six-shot deficit — and beat playing partner Tiger Woods by 11 shots — to change the outlook on his West Coast Swing. Riviera is his final tournament before the tour moves to Florida, and even on a different golf course, not much has changed.
He holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the long par-3 fourth hole, and then really got going on the back nine.
After a tough pitch to 12 feet that led to birdie on the 10th, Mickelson had 297 yards to the hole on the 11th and decided to hit driver, a shot he had not tried in months.
It came off perfectly and climbed onto the front edge of the green, making Mickelson the only player to have an eagle putt on the 587-yard hole, which played right into the wind. The pin was all the way back, away from a large hump in the putting surface, which gave Mickelson the green light.
His eagle putt from 60 feet died next to the hole.
"I didn't think it was going to necessarily be reachable into that wind, but I was able to hit a low drive off the tee that scooted along the ground, and I felt like if I could hit one more of those with a driver I could get right up by the green," Mickelson said. "I felt like it was worth the risk to try to scoop one up."
The chip-in from behind the 18th was a bonus.
Mickelson made his lone bogey when his chip behind the 16th green ran 7 feet past the cup, and he missed the putt. On the 17th, his wedge rolled back to 7 feet for birdie, but the putt slid by on the left.
He faced another quick chip on the 18th, but it dropped in with perfect speed.
"It wasn't one I was really trying to make," he said. "It was quick, it was downhill, and I had to play about four or five feet of break, so it's not one that you're trying to get aggressive with. I was trying to get good speed and try to let it feed with the break, and I got fortunate, obviously, that it went in."
Holmes was the first player to reach 5 under, and that's where his fun began — consecutive bogeys when he failed to get up-and-down from just short of the green; a tap-in birdie at the par-3 sixth, with the pin below the bunker in the middle of the green; an 18-foot birdie on the seventh, a three-putt double bogey on the eighth and the birdie at the end.
He has struggled with a slight loss of power since brain surgery in September, and he even topped a shot in Phoenix a few weeks ago. But it's all starting to come together.
"I feel like each week my swing has definitely gotten a little bit better and improved a little bit," Holmes said. "My swing speed has slowly come back a little bit being out here and playing this much."
Byrd woke up Thursday morning to hear the wind whipping at his rental house on the Pacific bluffs. The last thing he wanted to do was play golf at Riviera, but it worked out well for him. He made five birdies in the toughest of conditions. The average score from the morning wave was 73.7.
"We're staying up on a bluff about five miles away," he said. "I got out of bed this morning and walked outside, and I was pretty anxious about playing this golf course today because it was howling on top of that bluff. And it whipped all day. My approach was just to keep it in play and have a pretty conservative game plan."
The afternoon players got a slight break, though the wind remained a factor.
"The last seven holes the wind started to die down progressively, and by the end, it couldn't be playing any nicer or any better," Mahan said. "So I was excited to come make some birdies late."
DIVOTS: UCLA sophomore Patrick Cantlay, who didn't miss a cut on the PGA Tour last year, opened with a 78. The Northern Trust Open also gave an exemption to Texas freshman Jordan Spieth, who had a 76. ... Tim Clark, playing for the first time since The Players Championship because of elbow surgery, was 4 over through 16 holes.
LPGA
Miyazato leads after first round at LPGA Thailand
PATTAYA, Thailand (AP) — Ai Miyazato shot a 5-under 67 Thursday to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the LPGA Thailand.
The 2010 champion from Japan opened with a birdie and had four more on a warm and humid day at the Old Course at Siam Country Club.
American Paula Creamer had a hole-in-one on the 146-yard 12th hole, hitting a 7-iron that one-hopped into the cup. She's five shots behind the leader.
"It was a really, really long day for me because of the temperature," said Miyazato, who was playing in her first LPGA event of the year. "I felt really calm this morning, so I could control myself really well out there. So that's why I think I had five birdies and no bogeys today. Overall, I hit the ball well and my putting was really good. I had a few really good up and downs."
Third-ranked Na Yeon Choi, Se Ri Pak, Amy Yang, Anna Nordqvist and Karrie Webb were one shot behind.
Numa Kulyanamitta (69) was tied for seventh along with Christel Boeljon, while Stacy Lewis (70) dropped off the top of the leaderboard with a triple-bogey on the last hole.
The fifth-ranked Creamer has been working on changes to her swing and the ace helped her salvage a 72 that was good for a tie for 26th.
"I'm still trying to find a bit of my rhythm," Creamer said. "I feel good to have my first round under my belt. I'm really working hard on my golf swing, so I'm probably the most technical that I've ever been. That's something I have to get used to and just being out there in competition."
Webb also made changes to her swing and felt good about the adjustments after four birdies on the back nine.
"A little scratchy on the front nine, but I sort of managed it," she said. "I didn't miss too many greens and I made some good two putts from long range. But on the back nine, I started to hit my irons better and gave myself quite a few birdie chances."
Champions
Langer chasing another ACE Group Classic title
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — The defending champion and runner-up are recovering from thumb injuries, the player of the year is in the field, and so is the guy who hit an upside-down, left-handed shot to win last week. The 25th anniversary of the ACE Group Classic has multiple story lines this weekend at TwinEagles Club.
Bernhard Langer won The Quarry last season for the last of his 14 Champions Tour titles. He had a tournament-record 20-under total to beat Funk by four strokes, but was sidelined later because of a torn thumb ligament. Funk is coming back from thumb fusion surgery.
Tom Lehman is making his first appearance in the tournament, and so is Corey Pavin, coming off his first Champions Tour victory after his incredible shot in the Allianz Championship.
He tied for third at the Allianz.
"If you know me a little bit, I'm a very competitive guy," Langer said Thursday, a day before the start of play in the 54-hole event. "I like to be in contention. When you've won so many times, you like to win again. If I'm able to practice and work at it, I'd like to have some success."
Funk injured his thumb using a swing aid when it struck a porch rail. Thumb surgery did not work, then he had to have fusion surgery — the doctor even had Funk grip a golf club so he could check the preferred angle of the thumb before putting Funk under for the surgery. In his first event since last July, he tied for 10th at the Allianz.
Lehman was the tour's top player last year, but hasn't started 2012 that way. He tied for 12th at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii, then tied for 31st at Allianz.
"I feel like the season is only now just starting for me," said Lehman, who played 29 times combined on both tours last year. "Didn't have much of a break, so I'm really anxious to kind of get moving with this season, and hopefully this week is the start of it."
Pavin won for the first time in 122 starts since the 2006 PGA Tour event in Milwaukee. He had to birdie the first playoff hole to beat Peter Senior, but it was Pavin's unlikely up-and-down for par on the par-3 14th that people are talking about. His ball landed in a hole next to a root, and he didn't have a swing from the right side. So Pavin turned the clubhead of an 8-iron over, and got the ball over a cartpath and to the top of a green sloping away from him. The ball ended up four feet away, and he sank the putt.
"It came out better than I could ever expect it to, and it was kind of almost laughable how good it turned out," Pavin said.
The tournament was last played at TwinEagles in 2006. Loren Roberts won that year to become the first Champions Tour player to open a season with three straight victories. Roberts also won in 2009 at TPC Treviso Bay.
International Men
Canizares, Whiteford share lead in Avantha Masters
NEW DELHI (AP) — Alejandro Canizares of Spain and Peter Whiteford of Scotland each shot a 6-under 66 Thursday to share the lead after the first round of the Avantha Masters.
Whiteford made four straight birdies after the turn in a round that included a lone bogey on the fifth hole. Canizares also mixed seven birdies with one bogey, five on his back nine.
Federico Colombo of Italy was one stroke behind, while six players were another shot back at the European Tour event. John Daly had a 79, which included a triple-bogey 8 on the 14th and five other bogeys.
The 29-year-old Canizares, whose father Jose Maria was part of four Ryder Cup teams, is looking for his second European Tour title after winning the Imperial Collection Russian Open in 2006.
News & Notes
McIlroy says improved swing will click at Masters
LONDON (AP) — Rory McIlroy is confident the changes he's made to his swing will work in time for the Masters in April. The 22-year-old Northern Irishman has been working with longtime coach Michael Bannon on improving his swing setup.
"I still feel it's going to take a couple more weeks to fully click in," McIlroy said Wednesday. "But it's definitely on the right track."
McIlroy leaves for the United States on Monday to play in the Accenture Match Play Championship, which starts Wednesday. The Masters begins April 5.
McIlroy opened his season by finishing second in Abu Dhabi and fifth in Dubai last week, when he revealed he'd been working on a "few fundamentals" in his swing.
"Posture was one of the key things, and just a little bit of swing plane," McIlroy said. "I was setting the club a little steep on the way back, so the club was getting a little bit across the line at the top.
"So Michael and I have been working on me getting more feel, and getting the club pointed a little more left at the top so it's on the right plane. That's basically it."
He added: "I should be well and truly ready for Augusta."
McIlroy famously collapsed on the final day of the Masters last year, blowing a four-shot lead with a closing round of 80. But two months later, he won his first major at the U.S. Open and finished the year at No. 2.
After a strong season in 2011, McIlroy believes he's on track at the start of the new year.
"I feel like I have taken big strides this year in my game and in the way I am swinging the club and in my consistency as well," he said. "So I've had a second and now a fifth. And even if you don't have great weeks, but then you still managed top-fives, that's not a bad thing."
He's still got seven weeks to perfect his swing before the Masters.
"Hopefully, there will be a day when it all clicks and it comes easy to me," McIlroy said. "As for the time being, I still have plenty of swing thoughts I am thinking about out on the golf course."
-- Bernie McGuire
Sorenstam rejects Solheim Cup captaincy
LONDON (AP) — Former top-ranked golfer Annika Sorenstam says she's turned down the chance to be captain for Europe in the 2013 Solheim Cup against the United States.
The 41-year-old Swede says she "simply cannot provide the necessary time that the European team, Solheim family and the entire event deserves."
Sorenstam, who retired in 2008, has two young children. She played in the Solheim Cup eight times, winning 24 points in 37 matches. Sorenstam says on her website "the Solheim Cup has been an important part of my career, and I hope to one day lead the European team."
Europe will defend the title it won last September when the U.S. hosts the biennial competition next year in Parker, Colo.
Injured Casey won't return for Match Play
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Injured Paul Casey will not return for the Match Play championship. His spot in the 64-man field next week in Arizona will be taken by George Coetzee.
Casey injured his shoulder while snowboarding over the holidays. He hopes to return the second week in March for the Cadillac Championship at Doral. Coetzee will play top-ranked Luke Donald, barring other withdrawals.
Phil Mickelson already said he won't be playing in Match Play because his kids are out of school and he's going on a family vacation. He won at Pebble Beach last weekend.
Golfer Daly says he hurt right elbow in India
NEW DELHI (AP) — John Daly says he may have torn ligaments in his right elbow during the first round at the Avantha Masters. The American says on Twitter his "elbow snapped" when he played a shot Thursday on the ninth hole. He finished at 7-over 79.
Daly posted a photo on Twitter with his right arm in a cast, saying "no bones are broken, possible torn ligaments according to European Tour Docs--getting home for X-rays!"
His management company, Wasserman Media Group, says it is unaware if Daly has withdrawn from the tournament.
From:www.brownsvilleherald.com
But with the snap of a couple of left-handed fingers, things can change. A 64 on Sunday at Pebble Beach catapulted Lefty past Tiger Woods, Tony Romo and everyone else involved in one of the most beautiful venues in golf, and if you thought Phil's play would fall off this week at the Northern Trust Open, you'd be wrong. 
