PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The conditions were such that Phil Mickelson had the full rain suit on as well as golf gloves on both hands. The weather wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t very warm, either, and the spitting rain and the blustery winds made for a challenging day.

His score wasn’t anything special, but a 1-under-par 70 was notable nonetheless as it was just the second time in his last 11 major tournaments that he broke par.

It was also his lowest opening-round score at the British Open since his 63 at Royal Troon in 2016, where he dueled with Henrik Stenson before eventually finishing second.

That was believed to be his last great chance at major glory, but Mickelson shocked the world in 2021 when he won the PGA Championship at age 50, becoming the oldest player in golf history to win a major championship.

A triumph such as that certainly ranks among his top career achievements, but among his six major titles, Mickelson points to his win at Muirfield 12 years ago as the biggest.

“I think winning the Open in 2013 was the greatest accomplishment in my career because I had to learn a style of golf that I didn’t grow up playing,” Mickelson said Thursday after an early-morning tee time at Royal Portrush. “It’s kind of the greatest source of pride for me as a player to overcome those obstacles. Now I’ve come to really love it, enjoy it, and I seem to play well in some of the adverse conditions too.”

Mickelson had always been perplexed by links golf, with just a tie for fourth in 2004 at Royal Troon in a year he won his first Masters as his only real close call in the tournament.

But in 2013, in back-to-back weeks, Mickelson captured the Scottish Open and the Open, shooting a final-round 66 to pass a slew of players at Muirfield to hoist the Claret Jug.

It gave him three of the four majors, with the U.S. Open eluding him. Mickelson, who might have played his final U.S. Open last month when he missed the cut at Oakmont, has a record six runner-up finishes in that tournament.

“I think it’s a sign of a complete player, to be able to win in all the conditions of the majors that they provide,” Mickelson said of winning the Open. “Obviously I’ve never won a U.S. Open, but winning a Masters requires a whole different style of play than winning a U.S. Open and a PGA. This is unique as well. I just think it’s a sign of a complete player.”

Mickelson, who turned 55 last month, has had his struggled in majors, having missed the cut in eight of the 10 since he shot a final-round 65 at Augusta National in 2023 to finish second to Jon Rahm at the Masters.

He’s also had his struggles on the LIV Golf League although he is having his best year with three top-10 finishes including a tie for sixth at the LIV Golf Virginia event prior to the U.S. Open. He is 15th in LIV Golf’s standings.

With a 7:19 a.m. tee time, alongside Daniel Van Tonder and Ryan Peake, Mickelson made some noise early, with a birdie at the 2nd hole and then a holed bunker shot—after leaving his second due to a plugged lie—at the par-3 3rd for a par. He added a birdie at the 7th before a bogeys at the 11th and 14th followed by a birdie at the 17th.

“I really enjoyed it. I played really well, and I had an opportunity,” Mickelson said. “Like I really enjoy playing these conditions and playing this tournament. It’s just a lot of fun.”

As for the bunker shot on the 3rd hole: “Yeah, that was a crazy one. It was really one of maybe two poor shots I hit, I felt. That bunker shot that buried in the lip, and then to make it, it was obviously a lot of luck. It was crazy. I was just trying to save bogey, and I got lucky and it went in.

“I really hit a lot of good shots today, and it wasn’t too stressful.”

When he finished, Mickelson was three strokes behind Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen, last year’s British Amateur champion who turned pro before he could take advantage of the exemption perks, such as a spot in the Masters.

He qualified for the Open via final qualifying and played in the group ahead of Mickelson, making an eagle, three birdies and two bogeys to shoot 67 along with China’s Haotong Li.

It’s a long way to go but to be just three back and with a 12:20 p.m. (local time) on Friday is a nice spot, too.

“I just find that it’s a very rewarding course if you hit good shots and a very penalizing course,” Olesen said. “It seems to be consistent with the degree of how good or bad you hit it. Like if you hit a really good shot, it gets really rewarded. If you hit a really bad shot, it gets in a really bad spot, as opposed to getting away with really bad shots and get lucky. It seems like it penalizes it to the degree which it should.”


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Phil Mickelson Begins British Open With 1-Under 70, Three Behind Early Leaders.

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