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"I just wasn't sharp," he said, later providing
an example from his water-bound tee shot on No. 14. "I stepped
in there, I was going to hit a draw, standing over it, I'm going
to hit a fade and I just made an awful swing, lunged forward on
it."
Mickelson scrambled his way to par on 14, and his 3-under 139
keeps him in the field for the weekend at Quail Hollow Golf Club
in Charlotte.
Mickelson was still at 7-under before a bogey on No. 11 and at
plus-3 the rest of the way.
On 15, a par 5, he again struggled with his thought process.
"I hit a great drive and I kind of went blank on the 2-wood
because I couldn't quite get it there and I wasn't sure what I
was doing and I just kind of hit without realizing I was hitting
and a purpose and a swing purpose," he explained. "It's just
little things like that that I've been struggling with. Then I
hooked it to the right and compounded it with a few bad wedges."
He pushed his tee shot at the par-3 17th into the water, too,
and carded a double bogey.
"I think kind of an example of what I've been talking about is
like on 17," he said. "We're standing over the ball and I'm
changing my mind and I'm changing the shot, moving the clubhead
a little bit and it just -- instead of backing away and kind of
refocusing, I just kind of hit it and I'm not really kind of
aware of what I'm doing. So, I've got to fix that and work on
it."
Mickelson, who hit 14 greens on Thursday but only seven on
Friday, has recently talked about trouble with focus related to
his age (50).
Regardless, he's not backing down and is eager for the final two
rounds.
"There's things from meditation to, you know, things you eat,"
he said. "There's just a lot of exercises, getting your eyes
moving to kind of get your brain going. There's a lot of little
things that I'm doing out there to try to stay focused. But it's
getting better. I'm optimistic for the weekend."
--Field Level Media
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