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“So history was made today,” beamed Phil Mickelson when he spoke to the media after his opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
He wasn’t entirely correct. History hadn’t been made, but the stat behind what he had achieved was still pretty incredible all the same.
The five-time major champion believed that, for the first time in his professional career, he had hit 100% of fairways (13/13) during a round.
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However, this wasn’t the case – but it did mark 21 years since he had done so.
The Golf Channel’s statto Justin Ray had the details.
According to @ShotLink, Phil Mickelson hit every fairway in today's round. It would be the first time Lefty has hit every fairway in a PGA Tour round in 21 years (1998 at Torrey Pines).
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 7, 2019
.@PhilMickelson played 1,613 @PGATOUR rounds between instances where he hit every fairway (which he did today).
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 7, 2019
Mickelson’s achievement was pretty remarkable, especially given how notoriously poor he has been off the tee in recent years.
Before this event, the 48-year-old ranked 220th out of 226 players recorded on the PGA Tour for Driving Accuracy, hitting just 47.14% of fairways. In 2018, he ranked 189th out of 193 players recorded with 52.91%.
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His opening round was on Monterey Peninsula CC, which is not exactly renowned for its tight fairways.
When this was pointed out to Mickelson, he replied: “Well, let’s not nitpick here. If you hit them all, that’s all that matters.”
Mickelson’s accuracy off the tee helped him to a six-under-par 65 in the opening round; one shot off the lead held by Brian Gay and Scott Langley.
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