LOS ANGELES – Jeff Quinney threw a hole-in-one and a stirring closing birdie at Phil Mickelson yesterday in the third round at Riviera Country Club. It was either all he had – which wasn't good enough – or a sign of more to come today as he tries to chase down the world's No. 2 player in the final round of the Northern Trust Open.
With the pins tucked and the greens rolling fast, Mickelson managed to shoot only a 1-under-par 70 yesterday, and though Quinney made up three strokes with a 67, he still trails the San Diegan's 11-under 202 lead by one shot. The next-closest player is John Rollins (69), who is five shots behind, so it very much looks like a duel today of former Arizona State stars.
“It could be (match play) if we play well,” Mickelson said. “If we don't play well, we let everybody back in. But if we go out and shoot under par, it will be tough for guys to catch us and we'll have a good match.”
Mickelson has done well with 54-hole leads in his career, converting 18 of his 25 chances into victories. But he's got at least a couple of demons to overcome at Riviera. He is winless on this classic layout, and Charles Howell III came from three strokes off Mickelson's lead last year to beat him in a three-hole playoff.
“I know that I won't be handed anything,” Mickelson said. “I know how well Jeff's playing, and how well John Rollins played, and I know that there are guys that are right there who can shoot a low round. And it's my job to go out and hit solid shots, hit a lot of fairways, attack some pins, and be careful with some that are dangerous, and see if I can shoot in the mid-60s.”
In Quinney, Mickelson faces a player seemingly primed to win on the West Coast Swing. The former U.S. Amateur champion posted four consecutive top-10 finishes on the West Coast last year, including a tie for ninth at Riviera, and though he hasn't been quite as sharp this season, he has two top-25s in his past two starts at Scottsdale and Pebble Beach.
“I don't know if I'm due,” Quinney, 29, said. “I just definitely want a chance coming in (today). He's going to bring a lot, and I've got to bring my best to the table. He's definitely not going to hand it to me. I've got to go out and earn it.”
Quinney did his best to rattle Mickelson in the third round. Mickelson led him by four shots at the outset, but that margin was gone by the sixth hole, where Quinney briefly seized a solo lead in dramatic fashion.
At Rivera's quirky par-3, Quinney slightly pulled a 7-iron shot from 163 yards that looked like it might find the famous pot bunker in the middle of the green. The ball hit the steep slope just a few feet right of the sand, and unable to see because of glare on the green, Quinney turned away, figuring his ball would trickle down somewhere around the hole.
Then, in a sudden burst, the crowd roared as the ball caught the left half of the cup and dropped in for an ace. Quinney was 4-under for the day, 10-under overall.
In celebration, Quinney and his caddie awkwardly bumped into each other, just as Quinney had done with his previous caddie when he made an ace last year in the final round of the Bob Hope.
“I'm oh-for-2 in hole-in-one celebrations,” Quinney joked. “You don't know whether to hug or high-five or just in-between, and it probably looks sloppy. Adrenaline goes through your system. It's an amazing feeling.
“Obviously, when those things happen, you try not to take it for granted. . . . It almost put me down a level, put me in a zone. I was at ease the rest of the day.”
Mickelson put a slight damper on the party when he followed Quinney's ace by hitting an approach to 6 feet and made the birdie to regain a share of the lead. “I thought that was as good a response as I could have expected,” Mickelson said with a smile. “I thought it was a big 2 for me.”
Quinney suffered a two-shot swing when he bogeyed the par-5 11th and Mickelson birdied, and he was two down when he came to the 18th hole. He wasn't happy with his approach to 35 feet above the pin, but he said he had good notes in his yardage book on the green's break, and his putt hit the hole with perfect speed for a birdie.
“Getting one back and one shot closer to Phil is great,” Quinney said. Mickelson definitely struggled with his iron game. He missed seven greens, and on those he did reach, he left himself with a lot of 25 to 30-foot birdie putts.
But he made three tremendous par saves, including at the final hole. When he missed the 18th green right, his ball was behind a tuft of grass, and when Mickelson elected to use his putter, he zoomed the shot 6 feet past the hole. A bogey would have left him tied, but he confidently holed the putt.
“My thought process was that if I make this 6-footer, tie goes to me,” Mickelson said. “We'll go head-to-head, and if I can tie him, tie goes to me. So that's the nice thing about having a shot in the hand.”
Tod Leonard: (619) 293-1858; tod.leonard@uniontrib.com
