With Tiger gone, crowd goes wild for Mickelson

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The large crowd bunched together near the clubhouse was yelling "Phil! Phil! when Phil Mickelson was still inside signing his scorecard.

A man started chanting "Here we go Lefty, here we go!" as Mickelson began a television interview.

Eliminate Tiger Woods from the weekend, add a few afternoon cocktails to a Saturday crowd that didn't seem to be thinned much by the world's No. 1 player missing the cut, and Mickelson became the top attraction at the Quail Hollow Championship.

"I think that's Charlotte, though," Mickelson insisted after his 1-under 71 left him tied for second, two shots behind Billy Mayfair. "We get a lot more people at this tournament and they're very supportive. I think it might be that."

But it's clear with Mickelson coming off another Masters victory and in contention for his first win here, he'll be followed by a large gallery on Sunday when he's in the next-to-last group.

"To be within a couple shots of the lead, I felt like I had to fight hard today and play hard because I didn't have my best stuff," Mickelson said as the fans shouted his name again. "I had to control my misses."

GOOD AND BAD: Davis Love III was born in Charlotte and attended North Carolina. His daughter is with him this week and he heard plenty of "Go Heels!" chants while shooting a 4-under 68 on Saturday to put himself into contention for his first victory in two years.

But he's not the only golfer who enjoys coming to Quail Hollow. Even a guy who missed the cut didn't want to leave.

"I went out to pitch this morning and Derek Lamely was out there just working on his game and he goes, 'Isn't this place so nice?'" Love said. "I'm like, 'Yeah.' I guess he missed the cut and he was just out practicing, and he was happy."

Lamely didn't make the weekend after shooting 75-72. But his feelings about Quail Hollow are shared by many on the PGA Tour.

"This is a great place to play golf," said Love, who went bogey-free Saturday to move within two shots of the lead and earn a pairing with leader Billy Mayfair in the final group Sunday. "It's like a mini-major."

Not that everyone is completely happy with the setup. Mickelson had his caddie keep the flagstick in on a long putt on 18 where he said he couldn't play it toward the hole.

"For as beautifully designed as this golf course is from tee to green, the greens are some of the worst designed greens that we have on tour," Mickelson said. "I would say 18 is the worst on this tour, but it's not the worst on this golf course. Twelve is, and we have some ridiculous putts here that you just can't keep on."

KIM'S TROUBLE: Anthony Kim, the 2008 Quail Hollow champion who finished third in the Masters, was in good shape heading to the 16th hole at 7 under after consecutive birdies.

Trouble was, Kim soon was walking down the wrong fairway.

His tee shot on the par 4 was so far right he was "in the junk, let's say very nicely," according to Kim. He then got aggressive, trying to hit "a miracle shot."

It didn't work, the ball hit a tree and bounced backward, forcing him to play his third shot down the parallel 18th fairway.

Kim then faced a shot where he had to hit it over the grandstand.

"It was a pretty good shot," Kim said. "I couldn't see the flag properly because there were so many people, but you saw the top of it."

Kim got it on the green, but missed the putt for bogey - and still was cheered - before finishing with consecutive pars and a 2-under 70 that left him four shots behind leader Billy Mayfair.

"I love North Carolina," Kim said. "I may just buy a house out here. This is my favorite tournament."

McILROY BOUNCES BACK: Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy left the Masters two days early with a wayward game and an aching back, wondering if he needed a long break.

Three weeks later, his back and game are loosening up.

McIlroy, who needed an eagle late in his round Friday to make the cut, shot a 6-under 66 on Saturday at Quail Hollow. It left him just four shots off the lead and energized after his painful stretch that included two missed cuts.

"It'll probably take another two or three months to clear fully," McIlroy said of his back. "But I feel as if I can swing with a lot more freedom and I can actually practice more, hit more balls and spend more time on the range, which has definitely helped."

McIlroy, who finished tied for 10th at the U.S. Open and tied for third at the PGA Championship last year, got off to a quick start in 2010 before his back first flared up in February when he finished sixth in Dubai.

"I'd get on the range and I'd maybe only hit 100 balls because I wasn't feeling very good," McIlroy said. "So I'd have to stop my session short there, and it's sort of been like that for the last couple months.

"I've added a couple events to my schedule just to try and play a little bit more and just get a little bit of fluidity back into the season."

DIVOTS: After taking the Wachovia name off the tournament a year ago amid criticism during the bank bailouts, Wells Fargo is running television commercials during CBS' telecast again. No decision has been made if the bank will rename the tournament in the future. Its contract as title sponsor runs through 2014. ... Jim Furyk three-putted from about 12 feet for bogey on 18 for a 71, leaving him five shots back.

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Eger wins first Champions Tour event since 2005

SAUCIER, Miss. (AP) — David Eger won the inaugural Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic for his first Champions Tour title since 2005, closing with a 3-under 69 in rainy, windy conditions Sunday for a one-stroke victory.

Eger, the 58-year-old former USGA and PGA Tour executive who was a longtime amateur star, made a 3-foot birdie putt on No. 16 to take a two-stroke lead, an extra stroke he needed after bogeying the 18th to finish at 11 under.

Tommy Armour III shot a 67 to finish second. He three-putted from 60 feet for a bogey on the par-3 17th, and finished with a par.

"It's been a long time coming," Eger said after accepting the $240,000 winner's check, his first in 118 events, for his third Champions Tour title.

"A year or two go by after your previous win, you don't know - as the birthdays continue to fly by - if you're ever going to do this again."

The 50-year-old Armour, who won on the PGA Tour in 1990 and 2003, lamented some putting woes that likely cost him his first Champions Tour triumph.

"The greens are a little tricky. The putts move around the hole," Armour said. "Tom Watson told me a long time ago, 'Even great putters miss putts.' You know, in 54 holes, you're going to miss a putt."

Eger, also the winner of the 2003 MasterCard Classic and 2005 Boeing Greater Seattle Classic, began the final round in a three-way tie with Brad Bryant and David Frost. Frost faded with a 2-over 74 and tied for seventh at 6 under, while Bryant struggled to a 3-over 75 that left him tied for ninth at 5 under.

A number of players appeared bothered by intermittent rain and wind gusts reaching 30 mph. Eger, who opened with consecutive 68s, was the only player to break 70 in all three rounds.

"I had the mindset that we were going to play, and we were going to play in crappy weather again," Eger said, referring to Saturday's windy conditions. "Fortunately, you know, I held it together."

After a par on the first hole, he made a 15-foot putt for birdie on the par-3 third and added birdies on Nos. 6, 8, 12 and 13, holing an 18-foot putt on the 12th.

Tom Kite (69) was third at 8 under, a stroke ahead of David Peoples (68), Mark James (69) and Fred Funk (69).

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Ishikawa shoots 58 in Japan Tour event

TOGO, Japan (AP) — Ryo Ishikawa shot a 12-under 58 - the lowest score ever on a major tour - to win The Crowns on Sunday for his seventh Japan Tour title.

The 18-year-old Ishikawa tapped in for par on the par-4 18th after his 15-foot birdie try slid inches by the cup. He had 12 birdies in his bogey-free round on the 6,545-yard Nagoya Golf Club course.

"I always dreamed of getting a score like this but didn't think I would do it so fast," Ishikawa said. "It hasn't really sunk in yet, but I'm sure it will after a few days."

After opening with rounds of 68, 70 and 71 to fall six strokes behind third-round leader Shigeki Maruyama, Ishikawa birdied nine of the first 11 holes Sunday. He added birdies on Nos. 14-16 and closed with two pars to finish at 13-under 267, five strokes ahead of Hiroyuki Fujita and Australia's Paul Sheehan.

"I got off to a good start for the first time in four rounds, so I told myself not to give up for the title until the end," Ishikawa said. "To my surprise, I found myself making this many birdies. I was in a calm mental state for all 58 strokes."

Ishikawa broke the Japan Tour record of 59 set by Masahiro Kuramoto in the first round of the 2003 Acom International. On the PGA Tour, Al Geiberger, Chip Beck and David Duval share the record at 59. Annika Sorenstam also had a 59 on the LPGA Tour.

In 2000 in a U.S. Open qualifier, Maruyama shot a 13-under 58.

Ishikawa, the 2009 Japan Tour money leader, chipped in from 10 yards for his fifth birdie of the day on the par-4 sixth and made four birdies on Nos. 8-11.

"I can see the scores from my four rounds on the scoreboard," Ishikawa said. "It's just hard to believe I improved my score from yesterday by 13 strokes."

Ishikawa earned $255,000 for his first victory of the season. He first won on the Japan Tour as a 15-year-old amateur in the 2007 Munsingwear Open. Last month in the Masters, he missed the cut by a stroke.

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Clarke jets back to Spain after cut confusion

SEVILLE, Spain (AP) — Darren Clarke had to hire a private jet to make his tee time for the third round of the Spanish Open, returning from England after realizing he had made the cut.

Clarke shot a par 72 Saturday at the Real Golf Club de Seville, teeing off at 8:45 a.m. local time after being up most of the night.

Believing he had missed the cut, Clarke flew to his home in Surrey on a commercial flight. No sooner had he begun to relax with his two sons than Clarke received a series of phone calls telling him that his 69 Friday left him at 144, good enough to play on the weekend.

The player from Northern Ireland attempted to catch a flight from London's Gatwick airport, only to miss it after becoming caught in traffic. A private jet was located at Oxford airport, and he was able to depart at 2 a.m. Saturday on a flight to Malaga. He then had a two-hour drive to Seville.

"I had just 53 minutes sleep before I had to get up and go to the course," Clarke said. "But it would have been unprofessional of me not to make an attempt to get back, given all the hard work off the sponsors and officials to lay on such a good tournament this weekend.

"I have left tournaments before thinking I had missed the cut, but only ever got as far as an airport before being recalled."

Clarke didn't give the exact details of his costly mistake.

"It was cheap to fly back home on a scheduled plane and extortionate to get back here," he said. "I felt pretty tired at times but finished birdie-par-birdie, which was good."

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Tiger's game gets a serious reality check at Quail Hollow

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Before the Masters began, Tiger Woods talked about changing his behavior on the golf course. This is not what he had in mind.

Woods committed early to the Quail Hollow Championship, and he left early too. A stunning 79 in Friday's second round resulted in a missed cut, and he missed it badly. That's a rare event for Woods, who had missed only five cuts in 240 tournaments.

If Woods was hoping that playing in PGA Tour events again would speed the process of getting his life back to something resembling normalcy, his 74-79 performance and tie for 141st at Quail Hollow didn't help. All it did was reinforce the view that his game is in tatters.

You could say the back nine didn't agree with him — his score for two rounds there was 82, 10 over par, versus the 71 he shot on the front nine. But that doesn't reflect the truth, which is that he was an equal-opportunity bogeymaker.

In many ways, Woods picked up where he left off at Augusta National. If you remember his worst shots from the Masters weekend, well, that's pretty much how he played here. One key difference was that Quail Hollow has rough, unlike Augusta, and thick stands of trees, and Woods couldn't get away with badly errant drives like he did when he began the final round of the Masters by yanking his opening tee shot into the 9th fairway. At Quail Hollow, he was repeatedly on safari in the trees.

Quail Hollow provided Tiger with a reality check on the state of his game — both the technique of his swing and his mental approach. On Thursday he struggled with his swing but scrambled magnificently from the trees and bunkers, and even with two shots in the water, he salvaged a 74.

The second round was more troubling. His play on the final nine — three straight bogeys, back-to-back double bogeys — was indicative of bigger problems. Missing five-foot putts, stubbing a bunker shot and four-jacking (including three putts from four feet) weren't simple errors of technique, they stemmed from a lack of concentration.

And the last part of that sentence is notable because that's one thing we'd never seen out of Tiger. He never gives up, never gives in, never gives out and never gives anything away. Until Friday.

The debacle at the par-5 15th, when he tried to power in a four-footer for par and missed, then hastily pounded the comeback putt and watched it horseshoe around the cup and come out? He looked like a golfer who suddenly didn't care — he had a similar moment on the 14th green during the final round at Augusta — or worse, a golfer who wanted to punish himself. Don't laugh — every golfer has been there, done that.

Woods has no intention of telling us what's going on. "It is what it is," he said in a brief meeting with reporters after the 79. O.K., but what is it?

Asked what he was going to do, Tiger said he would practice a little and maybe turn on the TV this weekend "to watch the real players and see how it's done." It was a weak attempt at humor, but it was successful in its intent because it avoided the biggest question: What's Wrong With Tiger?

Maybe it's too early for that. The problem may simply be the result of his five-month layoff. But there are other possibilities. "I'm hitting the ball actually pretty decent," Woods said, "and I made three pretty bad mistakes around the greens that cost me."

He's in denial about his ballstriking. He hit only six of 28 fairways in two rounds, the lowest total of his career, and he has never looked more lost on a golf course.

Tiger tanked on Friday, coincidentally, after a reported heckling incident at the 10th hole, where one spectator shouted a setup line and another responded with the punch line, "That's what she said." One silly comment like that couldn't possibly get in the head of the toughest mental competitor golf has seen since Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, could it?

This much is certain: Tiger has been different since his return. The fight had gone out of him on Friday afternoon. It may have begun to leave him when he joked after the opening round that he wasn't even going to the range to figure out what was wrong with his swing. "To hell with it," he said, drawing laughs.

At least he could laugh about it. On Friday he offered some lame excuses for his obvious lack of effort on a few shots late in the round. "At that point, I was just trying to stay out of Angel's way," he said of Cabrera, who finished a shot off the lead held by Billy Mayfair. "He's leading the golf tournament, and that's kind of what you're supposed to do. I was pretty calm because there's nothing you can do. I had to eagle out, but that's not going to happen."

The questions aren't going away. Tiger struggled mightily with his swing, but there was no sign of swing coach, Hank Haney, leading to speculation about their future as a team. At times Woods seems to favor his surgically repaired knee, and he carefully masks an occasional limp. Is that a factor in his play?

Has the scope of his extramarital affairs affected his legendary concentration, mental toughness and self-belief on the golf course? He seemed invincible once upon a time. Not now.

Then there's his putting. Tiger is only 34, but in a lot of ways he's an old 34. He has been playing elite-level competitive golf since he was a young teen, and in recent years his erratic long game has put immense pressure on his putter. He was considered by many to be the best putter in the game for most of the previous decade. Has that changed?

We don't know. No one even dares ask the big question or even think it: Is Tiger done?

That seems impossible. After all, the man was in a rehab program six weeks ago. Perhaps due to his marital circumstances, he rushed his return to golf. Maybe he just needs some reps, as he likes to call his practice time. Maybe all he needs is time. His future with his wife, his kids, his family are all up in the air, and no one would be human if he weren't unsettled about that.

Tiger isn't Superman. We knew that already, but here's the scary thing about what transpired over the last two days at Quail Hollow: He didn't look like Tiger Woods, either.

Rapids' Thompson still fighting for top spotMasters champ Mickelson joining Tiger in Charlotte

Tway, Thompson top Champions Tour leaderboard

SAUCIER, Miss. (AP) — Bob Tway and 63-year-old Leonard Thompson shot 5-under 67s on Friday to share the first-round lead in the Champions Tour's inaugural Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic.

Tom Purtzer, David Peoples, Brad Bryant and David Eger opened with 68s at Fallen Oak. Mark O'Meara, coming off his first Champions Tour victory last week with Nick Price in the Legends of Golf team event, was two strokes back at 69 along with Eduardo Romero and Ted Schultz. Price had a 70.

Thompson, who won the last of his three Champions Tour titles in 2001, has cut his tournament schedule, but has been playing almost every day at home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., at Sawgrass Country Club and TPC Sawgrass.

"I think it had something to do with it. Yes I do," Thompson said. "I really do. ... You can't find too many places that you go from one to the other that are as difficult as those two on a daily basis. That's where we've been playing. I'm not saying that that was the be all, end all, but it certainly helps."

The 51-year-old Tway birdied Nos. 12, 14 and 16 to match Thompson at 5 under.

Tway said staying out of trouble areas was the key to his score.

"I'm pleased with how I played," Tway said. "The golf course, I think everybody likes it. It's in wonderful shape. If you can avoid the bunkers, that's the starting point, I think, off the tee because they're awfully penal. ... It was a challenging day because of the wind, but I was pleased with how everything went."

Thompson bogeyed the second hole, then ran off four straight birdies. He also bogeyed No. 11, then birdied Nos. 13-15 and closed with three pars.

Bernhard Langer, a two-time winner this year, opened with a 72.

Jodie Mudd and Bobby Clampett made their Champions Tour debut. Clampett had a 72, and Mudd shot a 74.

Rapids' Thompson still fighting for top spotLanger takes Champions Tour lead

Tiger's swing still out of whack in opening round at Quail Hollow

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Quest for the Holy Quail, my nominee as the title to replace the Quail Hollow Championship, did not go well Thursday for Tiger Woods.

It was only one round, one day, but the bad news for Tiger followers was that he picked up where he left off — in the rough, in the trees, in the water. When last seen, Woods played some of his sloppiest shots on the weekend at the Masters, completely out of character for the 14-major-championship Tiger that we know. His swing was still clearly out of order Thursday, especially on his first nine holes. If his short game had not been magnificent, 80 would have been in his wheelhouse.

With some stellar scrambling, he was able to overcome three bogeys and a double in his first 10 holes to shoot 74, two over par, and avoid shooting himself out of contention. From where he hit it, that was a remarkable score.

The day had a movie-set beginning. It was another bright, clear, crisp morning — cold enough to see your breath. The sun filtered through the pines as Woods prepared for his opening drive on No. 10. His caddie, Steve Williams, exhaled and the steam of his breath drifted from the shade into the sunlight like a special effect. Left of the green, a fog rose eerily off the lake.

Woods tore a page out of the Phil Mickelson playbook on that par-5 opening hole. He banged a driver down the fairway — a rare occurrence, it turned out — smashed a 3-wood near the green and played a delicate flop shot to within a foot of a tough pin placement. Easy birdie, followed by nothing easy the rest of the nine. Or the rest of the day, for that matter.

"I had a two-way miss going all day, which was great," Woods said later, showing some sarcasm. "I didn't hit the ball very good at all. Two balls in the water and pretty much struggled all day. I had a lot of issues trying to figure out where my balls were going to go. I hit a bunch of balls left, a bunch of balls right and a few down the middle. That was about it."

The new and relaxed Woods? Well, maybe it was one of those days that all you can do is laugh it off. Woods was frustrated, obviously, but when asked if he was going to the range to try to solve his swing issues, he said, "I'm not going to the range today. Hell with it."

At the 11th, Woods tried to carve a draw with his 5-wood tee shot and succeeded only too well, getting a break when his ball ended up in the rough a few feet short of a fairway bunker. Still, he was blocked by a tree and had to chip a low shot down the fairway. From there, he flipped a 40-yard pitch shot to within two feet and cashed a par.

The next hole was nearly an instant replay. A 5-wood into the left rough, blocked by a tree. The ball was sitting down slightly in dew-covered rough and Woods was looking right into the morning sun with the shot. He punched another beauty, shouted, "Run!" and then walked with his head down after it, knowing it had come up short. It led to another 40-yard flop shot played to perfection, although the ball ran out some 12 feet past the pin and he missed the putt. Bogey.

On the par-3 13th, Woods played a good iron shot to 12 feet for birdie but had a slick downhill putt. "C'mawn, git one back, Big Tee," a chubby fan wearing a maroon ball cap said. Big Tee? That's a new one. Big Tee's putt broke across the hole and missed on the left edge. Par.

A mediocre wedge approach at the short 14th left him a 25-footer for birdie, which he missed. He finished his tee shot at the par-5 15th with a one-hand follow-through, which usually means he lost the shot to the right. This one ended up in pine straw behind a pair of trees. With no apparent shot, Woods bravely punched out through a tiny opening, a shot so amazing that fans came over to check it out, and so did a photographer, who took a shot of the divot. You could see where Woods had disturbed the pine straw. There was slight trench, followed by some straw sticking straight up.

The second shot ended up closer to the pond than Woods would've liked, and through the fairway. He still had 186 yards to the pin; playing for a fade, he pulled his approach into the left bunker. He played a spectacular long bunker shot to eight feet and holed the putt for a fighting par that was emblematic of his day.

At the 16th, Cink had to chip out from underneath a tree in the left rough. His ball ended up there after conking a man in the head. "And I was standing behind this tree," the man said as he was handed a blue surgical glove filled with cold water to use as a compress.

"I hear Cink has a crummy attorney," a passer-by joked. "I think you can take him down on this."

Woods was also in the left rough, just past the tree that snared Cink, and actually had a shot to a front-left pin position. He'd barely finished his follow-through, though, when he yelled, "Fore!" Consider that word his new favorite f-bomb. His ball missed the green left, leaving him short-sided, but he deftly chipped close for another par save.

Then came the three holes that ripped up his carefully constructed house of cards. He made a stuck, god-awful swing on the tee at 17, a dangerous, water-guarded par-3. He hated the shot the second it left the clubface because he knew it was wet. He took relief on the forward tee and hit a shot pin-high, two-putting for a double bogey. At 18, he yanked his tee ball left and splashed it into the stream that guards the left side. He dropped near the stream, hit a nice-looking iron approach to a front left pin and watched it come up short of the green. Another deft pitch-and-run left him three feet for bogey.

At the first hole, even more late-arriving fans joined the gallery of several thousand following the group. Some college-aged kids walking along the ropes asked aloud, "Where's Tiger"? Then they looked across the fairway and spotted Woods, who was way, way right and in the middle of a forest of trees.

Woods took aim at the green from his area of deep shade, an unlikely play, but if Woods can see it, he can do it. He sent a low liner through and beneath the tree limbs, bouncing it near the green and avoiding the bunker. It rolled off the back left edge of the green. His pitch nearly caught a piece of the cup, but a sharp incline caused it to roll eight feet past. It would have been yet another crazy par, but Woods missed the putt and dropped to four over.

From there Woods settled down, managing a front-nine 35 that included a nice birdie putt on the par-3 second hole and a two-putt birdie on the par-5 fifth. He added one more birdie at 17 and a bogey at 18 to finish with 74.

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