America’s Phil Mickelson kept himself in the Barclays Singapore Open on Saturday with a wondrous recovery shot between two palm trees for a crucial birdie on the last hole of his second round.
The four-time Major-winner had put himself in trouble with a “horrific” second shot on the par-five 18th, when his five-iron scythed over a lake and landed in rough near trees on the bank.
But Mickelson arrowed his chip through a V-shaped gap between two palm tree trunks to within five feet, and putted out for the necessary birdie to get over the cut by a stroke with a total score of one-over-par 143.
“I hit one of the best tee shots I’ve hit all week and one of the worst second shots I’ve hit all week. I don’t even know what happened there,” he said.
“And I hit one of the best chips I’ve had. I had to go through the trees and run it up the hill, and I hit a really good chip and made the putt.”
The big left-hander is 10 shots off Thomas Bjorn’s lead after rounds of 73 and 70 in the storm-hit event, which was cut short on both Thursday and Friday and is under threat of being slashed to 54 holes.
“I fought hard to make the cut. It’s a tough course for me to make birdies, but I’m trying and hopefully I’ll make a few putts this afternoon and try to make a move to get in position on Sunday,” Mickelson said.
“I need to shoot a low one.”
Mickelson’s heroics were, however, outdone by Malaysia’s Danny Chia, who avoided the cut by hitting this week’s second hole-in-one on the par-three 17th.
Mickelson dodges cut with palm tree shot
