Mickelson goes side to side to move up board

Beauty, when it comes to rounds of golf, arrives in various flavours.

Bogey-free and six-under 66, as Carl Pettersson was in Thursday’s opening round of the US PGA Championship, would surely please purists — especially when it unfolds thanks to hitting 12 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens. Crisp ball-striking is simply something to be admired.

Yet later on Thursday, an equally fascinating round of golf was put forth, though you may have gotten motion sickness had you followed along. Phil Mickelson hit but five fairways and seven greens and was in more trouble than a 13-year-old juvenile delinquent.