Late arrival no problem for Mickelson in first round
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
DORAL, Fla. -- A little jet lag isn't necessarily a bad thing. At least, it wasn't for Phil Mickelson on Thursday during the first round of the World Golf Championships-CA Championship.
The defending champ didn't arrive in Miami until Wednesday night a little more than 12 hours before his tee time. He'd flown in at the last minute from San Diego after spending much of last week in Houston with his wife Amy in her on-going treatment for breast cancer.
"She's doing good, thank you," Mickelson told reporters after shooting a 71 in the windswept first round.
Mickelson may have been a "little groggy" but his round of 1 under Thursday left him four strokes off the lead. He even said he thought it was "fun to kind of fight the elements a little bit" as he made three birdies and just one bogey.
"My goal was to shoot something as solid as I did today and improve on it each day," he said. "So I have to go lower each day."
Mickelson said he didn't think the lack of a practice round would be an issue this week. After all, he knows TPC Blue Monster well -- in addition to his victory last year, he was second in the 2005 Ford Championship at Doral.
With the small and elite field of 68, the players get to sleep in, too. The first tee time on Thursday was 11:25 a.m. -- although a dismal forecast for heavy rain has moved the second round times up to 8 a.m.
"I've got (instructor) Butch (Harmon) here and I'm on a course that I've had some success at," Mickelson said. "... Usually the tee times are around noon ... so it gives me a chance before the round to get a practice session in.
"So when I teed off, I didn't feel as rusty, even though today, I may not have had too much practice, I had a couple of hours before the round and felt pretty good."
Mickelson said he was happy with the 71 given the windy conditions. He avoided the kind of big numbers that derailed some of the leaders and consequently begins the second round in the hunt.
"The thing about this course that's so great, though, it can handle this wind and still be playable," Mickelson said. "So even though it was a difficult day, you saw a lot of scores under par. It was very playable. It's a great design, and it handles all different conditions."
Mickelson also went back to two drivers this week and said he expects to do that more frequently in 2010. But he did say he'll probably just use his regular driver at Augusta National in the season's first major.
"The driver that I have, the FT 9, it hits the ball long and far, but it's also very high, and has great carry," Mickelson said. "A course like Doral, where it's very windy, this driver helps keep it down out of the wind, as well as it doesn't go quite as far as my current driver.
"So there are some holes where I want to hit a little bit more than 3 wood but the driver I have hits it into a narrow spot."
Mickelson's putter also was a little more cooperative on Thursday than it's been in recent weeks. He was tied for first in distance of putts made and shared eighth in putting overall with a total of 26.
"You try to identify what the issue was, my alignment was off," Mickelson explained. "It was misaligned, the putter head. I used some lasers and things to train my eyes and get my alignment proper, and all of the stuff (Dave) Stockton and I were working on started to kick in."
That inconsistent putter was one of the reasons Mickelson didn't play particularly well on the West Coast. His highest finish was a tie for ninth at Pebble Beach, so he has decided to add the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard to his schedule.
Coupled with Shell Houston Open, Mickelson will now play the two weeks leading into the Masters. He is a two-time champ at Augusta National, where he has 12 top-10s, including ties for fifth the last two years.
"I feel like that will give me a chance to be a little bit more competitively ready heading in," Mickelson said.
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