Phil Mickelson’s cracked 2-wood leads to ‘crazy shots’ at Fortinet Championship

Phil Mickelson hit driver from the woods, through the trees on his way to birdie at the par-5 16^th on Friday at the Fortinet Championship.

But that was more than just Phil being Phil.

“Well, my 2-wood cracked so I hit some crazy shots today,” Mickelson said. “I’ve got another head, so I’ll swap it, but it went dead left [off the tee] on 16, went dead right on another one and it would have been a perfect 2-wood out of those trees [on 16], but I didn’t want to hit it because I didn’t know which way it was going to go. So, I hit driver, got it through the gap and wedged on and made the putt.”

The birdie put Mickelson at 5 under for the tournament, seven off the lead. He finished there, thanks to wild par at the finishing hole in which he hit another squirrely wood right of the corporate tents. A marshal found his ball and picked it up. Mickelson got a free drop on the proper side of Temporary Immovable Object and made his 5.

Mickelson said he thinks he may have “flattened” the head of his 2-wood on Thursday but that he’ll put a new head on it before Saturday’s third round and believes he’ll tune it in quickly on the range.

Full-field scores from the Fortinet Championship

“I’ll swap it out, hit a few balls and it should be fine for tomorrow,” said Mickelson, who shot 69 in Round 2.

“I’m putting well, so I’ve got a chance to make a run at it, but the greens are so firm that if you’re not in the fairway, you can’t stop it. So I’m going to have to hit more fairways. And that 2-wood’s a really important club for me, so when it goes bad, I struggle.”