Saturday 7 April 2018 20:40, UK
A swing and a miss from an amateur can be seen from time to time on the golf course, but Phil Mickelson showed it can happen even at the highest level during the third round of the Masters.
The five-time major champion faced an early tee time in the rain at Augusta after making the cut on the mark at five over, with Mickelson then making the worst-possible start to Moving Day.
Playing alongside Tyrrell Hatton, Mickelson tugged his opening drive way right to leave himself with a tricky lie in the pine trees and with a blocked view of the par-four green.
Mickelson, with his head precariously close to a tree, took a number of practice swings before trying to fire his ball back into play - only to suffer a dreaded "whiff" and miss his ball by some distance!
After eventually pitching the ball back into play at the second time of asking, Mickelson missed the green with his next effort on his way to an ugly triple-bogey seven.
"Yeah, I hit the trunk on the down swing and just whipped it. And punched out and made triple. I've made a lot of triples lately," he said after completing his round.
Mickelson also made a hash of the second, but he then produced one of the shots of the tournament at the long eighth to set up a morale-boosting eagle.
The 47-year-old opted to have a pop at the green in two from around 270 yards, and he laced a stunning driver off the deck which scuttled over the bank and onto the putting surface to six feet, making no mistake with the putt which lifted him off the bottom of the leaderboard.
"It was a good one," said Mickelson. "Every now and then I'll hit a shot like that and it makes it fun. The nice thing is I'll get some crystal out of it. It wasn't a total loss."
Mickelson is out of contention after signing for a two-over 74 which left him seven over after 54 holes and he is already looking ahead to next year as he prepares for the final round on Sunday.
"I'll play as hard as I can, and just not worry about the results," he added. "But it's always Augusta, you always learn some things.
"I was taking some notes, there were some new pins there. So I'm kind of doing preparation for next year, I guess.
"But fortunately the weather held off. It wasn't too bad. It wasn't miserable by any means, but that start was pretty rough. I'm just hitting some pretty bad shots. I'm hitting some good ones, but hitting a lot of really bad ones."
Click on the videos above to see Mickelson' opening-hole shocker and his moment of magic at the eighth! Watch the Masters throughout the weekend live on Sky Sports Golf.
