Solid not enough for Phil Mickelson in 2008 PGA Championship
Majors | 
Written by BigRed
He only got to play five holes on Saturday after the third round was suspended due to dangerous weather in the Detroit area. First thing Sunday morning Phil missed an eagle putt on the short par-4 6th and then played 31 holes on that day to finish with rounds of 71 and 70 and in a tie for 7th.
Let’s take a look at Phil’s scorecards for the week:
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Total |
| Yards | 435 | 529 | 198 | 446 | 490 | 387 | 449 | 491 | 257 | 462 | 423 | 593 | 191 | 501 | 401 | 406 | 238 | 498 | 7395 |
| PAR | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 70 |
| Rd 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 70 |
| Rd 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 73 |
| Rd 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 71 |
| Rd 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 70 |
In a final round that was played in cool and windy conditions, Phil obviously had the best start he could’ve hoped for with three consecutive birdies. At that point he had it back to +1 and was only four shots behind Ben Curtis, who did lead the tournament until about midway through the 4th round. But somehow Phil lost it a bit afterwards: No birdie on the driveable 6th, a lot of missed greens and eventually a few missed par putts dropped him back out of contention rather quickly.
As a summary I think it is fair to say that Phil played four solid rounds on the “Monster” Oakland Hills CC. But I also have to be clear about the fact that obviously solid is not enough when you are looking to win a major championship.
