Phil Mickelson, during the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge, shot a 73, was tied for 87th and 10 strokes behind the leaders. “But I won the PGA, so …” he said. Indeed. You can’t take that away from him. But he just won’t win this week. Here are three things you need to know after Friday’s second round at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
Jordan Spieth leads
Jordan Spieth, just under two months since winning for the first time since 2017, could win again.
Spieth followed up his first-round 63 with a rain-delayed 66, and he leads Jason Kokrak by a stroke at the halfway point. Three strokes back of Spieth are Sergio Garcia, Sebastian Munoz and Patton Kizzire.
“Yeah, putter still felt pretty good,” Spieth said. “I came out of the rain delay and I made a nice putt on 3 and really felt like I had a chance to birdie almost every hole on that front nine and even into the back nine.
“But I wasn’t — I didn’t swing it as well. I wasn’t really completing it, and it wasn’t feeling great. I knew I was going to kind of have to manage my way around the golf course a little bit and fortunately did a really great job of that.”
Sergio Garcia is three shots back
Textbook approach from @TheSergioGarcia. 🎯
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 28, 2021
He takes the solo lead at -8. pic.twitter.com/K6xqxq1Kwg
Kokrak matched his first-round 65 with one in the second round. Munoz and Kizzire also shot 65s on Friday, while Garcia, who shared the first-round lead with Spieth, shot a 69.
“It’s like a little bit of a sweet and sour kind of taste because I felt like I played really, really well on the front and hit some really good putts,” Garcia said. “Unfortunately nothing wanted to drop. Then on the back, I just missed three or four drives, and you know, Colonial is like that. You miss the fairways just a little bit, usually you get blocked out and you’re struggling — you’re trying to figure out ways to make par.
“So unfortunately that was a little bit what happened on the back nine.”
Among other notable players, Collin Morikawa is six shots back, Tony Finau seven, Justin Thomas nine and Will Zalatoris 11.
Phil Mickelson misses the cut
Mickelson missed the cut by a shot. He birdied the par-4 15th, then bogeyed the par-3 16th after hitting his tee shot into a bunker, and the par-4 18th, after hitting his approach into a bunker.
Among other players to also miss the cut were Patrick Reed, Sungjae Im, Scottie Scheffler and Lee Westwood.
