HAVEN, Wis. - Phil Mickelson birdied the final hole, which was sort of like putting whipped cream on liver. It still didn't taste very good, especially considering the opportunity Mickelson let slip away at Whistling Straits.
At one point Friday, the Masters champion was 3 under par for his round, 6 under at the PGA Championship.
But a double-bogey 7 at the par-5 fifth hole and some shaky putting led to 72 and a 3-under 141 total. He was six strokes behind leaders Justin Leonard and Vijay Singh.
"It was nice to finish by making a putt because the eight holes previous to that on the back side were not very good for me with the putter," he said. "I had a lot of chances. I could have had a very low day, a really good day and I let it slide. I played my front nine solid. I hit a lot of good shots and made birdies where I needed to. "My second nine, I had great chances the first four holes and didn't get a putt to go. ... I really gave away a lot of shots there."
WORRIED ABOUT CHARLEY: By the time Paul Azinger came off the course, Hurricane Charley was upgraded to category 4 and headed toward Sarasota. Azinger, who has a home on the water in Bradenton, became more concerned when he could not reach his wife, Toni, via cell phone.
According to the PGA of America, 17 players in the field have Florida homes in the affected area of the storm, which hit land near Fort Myers. And, for the most part, they felt helpless.
"Yeah, it was a little tough to concentrate," said Rocco Mediate, who recently moved to Naples.
"I can only hope for the best," said Robert Gamez, who lives in Orlando. "I'm here and I've got to worry about trying to win a golf tournament. You can keep watching the Weather Channel, but it doesn't do much good."
SO LONG, JOHN: Coming into the PGA Championship, John Daly was touted as a popular Ryder Cup captain's choice for Hal Sutton.
But Sutton made it clear Friday he wasn't buying into the notion that Daly should be chosen based on his fan-favorite status. And Sutton all but said Daly has no chance to be chosen on Monday after Daly, who shot 81-76, missed the cut. The top 10 in points through Sunday automatically make the team.
"Right now, if anyone picked John Daly based on anything, it would literally have to be because you just wanted to see him there and you wanted to spike the crowd," Sutton said. "I'm not picking on John. John needed a good tournament and he knew he needed a good tournament this week. ... I was never going to play the popularity game. And I'm still not going to play the popularity game."
