Mickelson begins Sawgrass fightback

Phil Mickelson gave himself a mountain to climb at Sawgrass today, but wasted little time moving from nine strokes behind Lee Westwood to just six back.

After making the halfway cut with only a stroke to spare at three under par the Masters champion appeared to have little chance of achieving the victory which could take him to world number one for the first time.

But in more blustery conditions Mickelson chipped to four feet on the long second, holed from 10 feet at the 177-yard next and then converted a 17-foot chance from the edge of the fifth green.

Not that his was the fastest start of the third round. Fred Funk, winner in 2005 and now 53, covered the first 11 holes in a brilliant six under and jumped from the cut-line and joint 58th spot into a tie for sixth.

As for Tiger Woods, he was again a shadow of his former glorious self as he remained three under after four holes.

At least he was still around for the closing 36 holes unlike last week at Quail Hollow, where he missed the cut by an incredible eight shots, but the crowd must have wondered if they were watching the same player who had won 14 majors.

From just 76 yards at the first Woods left his pitch nearly 40 feet short and although he birdied the 532-yard second it followed a drive into the right rough and an approach into the left rough.

Having holed from 11 feet there he had to get up and down from a bunker on the next and bogeyed the fourth when he drove left this time, failed to find the green and failed to get up and down.

Westwood had looked in a different league to all that as he compiled opening rounds of 67 and 65 for a 12 under par halfway total that left him one ahead of Italian Francesco Molinari, Japan’s Ryuji Imada and American Heath Slocum.