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Saturday round update: Mickelson shot two under on Saturday and finished the third round at -7 for the tournament. He has a two shot lead over Brooks Koepka, who also shot two under for the day. They will make up the final pair on Sunday, teeing off at 2:30 p.m.
Saturday front nine update: Mickelson has finished his front nine in the third round and his lead is growing. He has show four under to move to -9 and take a four shot lead on four golfers. He’s currently tied for the best round of the day with nine holes to go.
Phil Mickelson has the lead after 36 holes of the 2021 PGA Championship, shooting rounds of 70 and 69 over the first two days on the challenging Kiawah Island Ocean Course to hold the honors at -5.
The 50-year-old Mickelson needed a special exemption earlier this month from the USGA to enter the 2021 US Open, to be held next month at Torrey Pines in his native San Diego. It’s the only one of the four majors he hasn’t won, as he’s picked up three Masters (2004, ‘06, ‘10), one PGA Championship (2005), and one Open Championship (2013).
If he were to win he would be the oldest major winner ever, surpassing Julius Boros, who took home the Wanamaker Trophy in 1968 at 48 years, four months, and 18 days old at Pecan Valley in San Antonio.
Mickelson’s swashbuckling style seems to be helping him on the wind-swept course, and he got the best of the tee times with an afternoon on Thursday and a morning on Friday at a track where the breeze is a massive factor. He’s also not exactly grinding out par golf: Six birdies in each of his two rounds, four bogeys on Thursday, three bogeys on Friday. But he’s stayed away from the “others” that have put others behind the eight-ball in this tournament.