Mickelson, Bradley go AWOL

    Round 3 Notebook

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Saturday, September 6, 2014

    Before Morgan Hoffman came along and carpet-bombed Cherry Hills Country Club with birdies for a course-record 62, the morning talk at the BMW Championship was the surprising leave-taking of Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. The duo, a likely Ryder Cup pairing, withdrew for totally different reasons before play began.
    Mickelson, 6-over and 14 strokes off the pace, said he needed rest. He cleaned out his locker on Friday night, but his departure wasn’t revealed until the morning.
    The bigger shocker came at about 9 a.m., when the WD sign went up next to Bradley’s name on the scoreboard. And the reason behind it is amazing.
    Bradley, 3-over after 36 holes, decided a favorable ruling he received from the PGA Tour on an embedded ball near the 18th green on Thursday, and one confirmed by PGA Tour rules chief Slugger White on Friday, was incorrect, and pulled out of the tournament.
    In doing so, he probably lost any shot at advancing to next week’s Tour Championship, which takes the top 30 in the season point standings. Bradley was 28th entering this week and will probably fall out of the eligibles.
    “I just feel withdrawing is the right thing to do to protect the field in the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship next week,” Bradley said. “It’s eating me alive.”
    It was the chain of events, more than the ruling, that nagged at Bradley. His 233-yard 4-iron third shot embedded in the steep grass face above the left bunker fronting the green. Under Rule 25-2, Bradley took relief for a ball embedded in its pitch mark. He chipped on and two-putted for a double-bogey 6.
    However, he didn’t ask Stuart Appleby or Justin Rose, the other players in his group, to look as the ball, which is customary. He did call for a roving rules official after making the drop, who said he was in the clear.
    He was in the scoring room for a longer-than-usual amount of time on Thursday. At some point Thursday, a fan told he he saw the ball bounce before coming to rest. Bradley then went to White before play on Friday. They went back to the spot, and White confirmed that Bradley didn’t violate a rule.
    That still wasn’t enough for the 2012 PGA Champion.
    “I didn’t call my fellow competitors for help in the first place and that bothers me,” Bradley said in a statement released by his agent. “I know the official approved the drop but I just can’t be absolutely sure it was the right spot.”
    That decision cost Bradley whatever prize money he was going to earn this week, and, presuming he’s out of the top 30, a shot at the $10 million bonus for the FedEx Cup champion and the slice of the regular purse money in Atlanta.
    In other words, a decision that could cost Bradley over $11 million.
    But his pillow will be soft tonight.
    Mickelson’s presumably will be as well, though his departure was more self-serving. With little chance to win and without a berth in the Tour Championship, Mickelson said he was going home to rest up for the Ryder Cup. Similar to how the Baltimore Colts left for Indianapolis, Mickelson left under cover of darkness. This was released by his PR people after midnight:
    “My primary goal is to rest and prepare for the Ryder Cup. Without a chance to contend at the Tour Championship, the most important thing for me now is to prepare for the Ryder Cup.”
    Never mind that there were probably more than a few people in Saturday’s big crowd who traipsed out to Cherry Hills, parked in a muddy lot, rode a shuttle, walked through 150 yards of cattle pen-style fencing and a showroom-sized display of BMW cars and motorcycles before seeing the golf course, who fully expected to see Phil Mickelson.
    Bradley had a crisis of conscience. Mickelson was selfish. Two more days of golf weren’t going to kill him. The Ryder Cup is three weekends away. He would have been well-rested.

    McIlroy pulls a Seve

    Once upon a four-putt, Seve Ballesteros explained his gaffe thusly: “I mees, I mees, I mees, I make.”
    Rory McIlroy could have said as much on Saturday, when he missed the green at the par-3 12th hole, chipped to 4 feet 9 inches, and four-putted for a triple-bogey 6.
    What? The world No. 1 suddenly looking like the world No. 1,000,000?
    “The 12th hole just really derailed me,” McIlroy said. “The first two putts I didn’t lose any concentration. I took my time over them. I just completely misread the first one. Then just hit a bad putt the second, and then the third one I was just going for a tap-in and just lost concentration.”
    He finished with a 2-over 72 for 4-under 206 and is nine back of leader Billy Horschel with a round to play. Arnold Palmer was seven back and won the 1960 U.S. Open on the same course.
    “I just need to go out tomorrow and try to post a low one and finish as high as possible (to) give myself the best possible chance going into Atlanta next week,” McIlroy said.

    Around Cherry Hills

    Looking for a lurker going into the final round? Check those tied for seventh, eight strokes back to 5-under 205: Jim Furyk (a former winner and author of a 59 at Conway Farms last year), Jordan Spieth (winless since last year’s John Deere Classic), and Graham DeLeat. ... Hunter Mahan is 19 strokes off the pace, but he’s a lock to advance to the Tour Championship, and the only player on the circuit who will have played in all 32 playoff tournaments since the format began in 2007. Mickelson and Steve Stricker’s streaks of making the Tour Championship each year of the playoff era have ended ... Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed drove the first green on Saturday, each making birdie. ... With Mickelson and Bradley off the premises, there are 16 Ryder Cup players left in the field, 10 U.S. and six Europeans. Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson, at 8-under 202, lead that group.
    – Tim Cronin