Mickelson lets another Major escape

World number two Phil Mickelson retained his title of being the best player never to have won a Major when his third round recovery…

World number two Phil Mickelson retained his title of being the best player never to have won a Major when his third round recovery attempt in the Open at Muirfield vanished in the Scottish mist this morning.

The 32-year-old, who shot a five-over 76 in the second round, knew he needed something special if he was to get back into contention. Instead, he shot another 76 to be in second last spot of the 83 qualifiers on seven-over.

Mickelson had dropped seven shots by the time he reached the 14th tee. Only for birdies at the 14th and 17th, the American’s card would have looked even worse.

His best finish in the Open came at St Andrew’s in 2000 when he tied for 11th place behind the winner Tiger Woods. In this his 10th year playing in the Open, Mickelson has failed to finish in the top 20 - aside from 2000 - any year and has missed the cut twice in 1994 and 1999.

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Jesper Parnevik, who like Mickelson had started the day two-over par, was quickly into red figures. The flamboyant 37-year-old Swede reached the turn in four-under 32 to move within four shots of the five overnight leaders. They are; Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, South Africa’s Ernie Els, American duo Duffy Waldorf and Bob Tway and Shigeki Maruyama from Japan.

With weathermen promising that the winds would get up for the late starters, Parnevik had reason to hope that he would still be in the mix come Sunday's final round.

Ireland’s Des Smyth is just one shot behind the leaders on five-under while Darren Clarke was two further adrift on three-under. Clarke begins his third round at 2:05 p.m., Smyth at 3:00 p.m. and Harrington at 3:20 p.m. in the penultimate group alongside Waldorf.