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Extra practice yields results for Mickelson

Left-hander overcomes 3-stroke defi cit to win

By Dave Lawrence Sports Editor

RICHMOND – After playing two rounds, 36 holes, of golf Saturday, Phil Mickelson would not have been blamed for calling it a day. But Mickelson, in his rookie year on the PGA Champions Tour, wasn’t happy sitting 3 strokes back of leader Mike Weir before Sunday’s final round of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at the Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course.

So, instead of heading back to the hotel, Mickelson went to the driving range to work on his swing.

The extra practice helped. Mickelson went from 3 strokes back of Weir to 3 strokes ahead to claim his second Champions Tour win of the season.

“I didn’t strike it as well as I wanted to yesterday and I wanted to just get the timing back,” Mickelson said. “I had been hitting the ball really well coming in at points, but – especially with the irons – I

Dave Lawrence/The Local

Phil Mickelson (right) and Retief Goosen (center) watch as Mickelson’s tee shot fl ies downrange on the 16th hole in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at the Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course Sunday,. Mickelson overcame a 3-stroke defi cit to beat fellow lefty Mike Weir with a 17-under-par 199. Weir fi nished with a 14-under 202.

didn’t quite yesterday, in yesterday’s 36-holes, play as well as I wanted to. I hit some shots that weren’t okay, that I needed to work on.

“So, I just kind of found the rhythm a little bit and tried to incorporate that today. And I ended up improving on some shots. I think like the shot on 4 where I hit an 8-iron where there’s water tight to the pin and I hit it in there 5 feet – that was a really good shot to have the confidence to take on that pin. And that comes from, like, last night. Kind of finding that rhythm and finding that swing that I wanted.”

Mickelson maintained his reputation as a long hitter, averaging 299.7 yards over the three rounds.

“It’s a huge – yeah, big – advantage when you’re carrying the ball that far,” Weir said of Mickelson. “I kind of knew that going into this week. I felt as wet as it was, the longer players were going to have a nice advantage because there’s no run on the ball. … Yeah, I think anytime you have length like that, we see in the way the game’s played now, it’s a big advantage.”

While Mickelson finished with a 17-under-par 199, he struggled throughout the tournament to hit the greens in regulation. He hit 39-of-54 greens for a 72.2 percentage and a tie for 34th place among the tournament field.

One of the shots Mickelson had to overcome was a wayward tee shot on the ninth hole.

“That kind of fried me a little bit,” Mickelson said. “I was able to play a good back nine, but you can’t, you can’t make those mistakes. And I was lucky to get away with it because I came back and played well. That’s something I’ve been working on and it will give me something to work on here in the coming weeks as we head

see PRACTICE, pg. 21

Kickers fall to Tormenta in physical match

By Zach Joachim Richmond Times-Dispatch

RICHMOND – The ring of cowbells partnered with a constant drumbeat to provide the soundtrack to a sold out and palpably on-edge City Stadium Saturday night, in front of which the Kickers scratched and clawed but ultimately fell 1-0 to South Georgia Tormenta FC in a physical, penalty-filled tussle.

Although a sellout only entails 875 fans amid the coronavirus pandemic, Richmond’s second-place spot in the USL League One table going into the match with just one week to play resulted in a tense atmosphere at City Stadium. The league’s top two teams qualify for the championship match.

In Section O, the home of the River City Red Army, a Kickers fan group, Page Hayes played her drum and chanted throughout the match. She said Kickers fans were well aware of the playoff implications Saturday, and did their best to supply the requisite raucous.

“We bring the same kind of passion always, regardless of the situation,” said Hayes, who has been attending Kickers matches for six years. “We’re a 90-minute mentality, if we’re playing we’ve got to chant the whole time. So that’s what we’ll do.”

Kickers leading scorer Emiliano Terzaghi picked up an injury in the first half when a South Georgia defender rattled into him. After the match, Kickers head coach and sporting director Darren Sawatzky was unsure of Terzaghi’s status going forward.

But Sawatzky did say South Georgia, which has been eliminated from playoff contention, came into the match looking to play a physical game. Sawatzky felt the officials did not do

Dave Lawrence/The Local

Richmond Kickers’ defender Kyle Venter (12) clears the ball from Kickers’ territory in their 1-0 loss to visiting South Georgia Tormenta FC at City Stadium Saturday night. Richmond goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald is in the background.

enough to protect his players. Tormenta committed 14 fouls in the match, Richmond just five.

“A team that’s out of the playoff came in and played a center back up front and they came in throwing elbows, punching and kicking the crap out of my team to the point where arguably the league MVP (Terzaghi) is maybe out for a while because he just got beat up,” Sawatzky said.

“That’s not an excuse, we still needed to finish what we had but they had a game plan, they came in here to kick the crap out of us and get a win and it worked out for them.”

An altercation at the end of the match marred the proceedings, as a South Georgia player ended up in the stands after a verbal exchange with fans, capping an all-around contentious affair.

After a rugged first half in which neither side had a clear chance on goal, South Georgia (4-6-4) took the lead at the very end of a five-minute period of stoppage time.

Tormenta midfielder Marco Micaletto thumped home a close-range shot into the far corner past an onrushing Richmond keeper Akira Fitzgerald after Nil Vinyals made a marauding run down the center of the pitch. No Kickers defender stepped to Vinyals until he was already bearing down on goal, and by that time Micaletto had found ample space on the right side and had time to slot home the finish.

After South Georgia enjoyed the majority of possession in the first half, Richmond (7-5-2) largely flipped the script in the second.

Kickers defender Matt Bolduc nearly found an equalizer in the 80th minute when his low-driven shot from the edge of the box found its way through a sea of legs. But although the stop proved awkward, the Tormenta keeper smothered the ball to preserve the lead.

South Georgia received a pair of yellow cards down the stretch for preventing Richmond from taking free kicks, and Micaletto earned his second yellow of the match and a subsequent red card in stoppage time.

The red card gave Richmond a free kick on the edge of the box, but midfielder Ryley Kraft’s effort glanced off the Tormenta wall and over the goal. South Georgia bled out the clock to see out the slim advantage.

Zach Joachim can be reached at zjoachim@timesdispatch.com.

Continued from pg. 19

into Augusta.

“But this was a good momentum start for me. I put a driver in that I haven’t used before, trying to get a little more pop for Augusta, a little bit more carry. It might have been a little bit offline at times, but I’m working with it and it was a good successful week.”

Once on the green, however, Mickelson was deadly, topping the field with an average of just 26.7 putts per round.

“I putted really well and I hit the ball long, but I need to work a little bit on accuracy. It wasn’t too bad other than 9 where it went out of bounds,” he said. “I hit a lot of good short irons to give me some birdie putts. My short game was great, too. My chipping out of the rough, which is not easy, I hit a lot of really good shots close.”

Mickelson played well out of the sand, too. After hitting his drive into a bunker adjacent to the 17th green, he made a nice pitch out to set himself up for a short putt for par – which he sank.

While Mickelson’s worst shot of the day was on the ninth hole, his best shot of the day was on the par-4 15th. Mickelson hit a towering tee shot over trees and just over the pin. The ball landed on the green just feet away from the hole. He two-putted the green for a birdie.

“It was the best swing of the day for me,” Mickelson said. “I needed to hit a good shot there and flew it right in the center. From where I was at, I thought it might even hit the pin. I didn’t realize it flew past, but I was just trying to get it anywhere on and it was dead solid.”

While Weir, who finished with a 14-under 202, was unhappy with his putting in the final round, he enjoyed the battle with Mickelson.

“Phil and I, we’re the same age and we’ve been competing

Joel Klein for The Local

Phil Mickelson hits his approach pitch on the 9th hole en route to a fi nal-round 65 and a 3-shot victory in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at the Country Club of Virginia Sunday.

against one another since college golf,” Weir said. “We’ve had lots of, you know, battles over the years. So there’s been plenty of tournaments that we’ve both been in the mix and trying to battle out for a win.”

Mickelson and Weir are both left-handed. There have been just three instances on the PGA Tour where southpaws finished both first and second. Mickelson and Weir were first and second, respectively, in the 2005 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. Mickelson finished second to Bubba Watson in the 2011 Farmers Insurance Open, and he was second to Ted Potter Jr. in the 2018 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Paul Goydos came in third with a 13-under 203. Brandt Jobe and Bernhard Langer tied for fourth with a 12-under 204. Kenny Perry, K.J. Choi and Retief Goosen finished in a tie for sixth with a 11-under 205, and Robert Karlsson – who double-eagled the 18th hole – and Ernie Else finished in a tie for ninth with a 10-under 206.

Dave Lawrence can be reached at dlawrence@mechlocal.com.

Dominion Energy Charity Classic (At Country Club of Virginia, James River Course, par 72, 6,993 yards)

1. Phil Mickelson, $300,000, 68-66-65 — 199 2. Mike Weir, $176,000, 68-63-71 — 202 3. Paul Goydos, $144,000, 70-68-65 — 203 T4. Brandt Jobe, $107,000, 68-68-68 — 204 T4. Bernhard Langer, $107,000, 67-7067 — 204 T6. Kenny Perry, $72,000, 71-70-64 — 205 T6. K.J. Choi, $72,000, 72-67-66 — 205 T6. Retief Goosen, $72,000, 68-68-69 — 205 T9. Robert Karlsson, $54,000, 72-70-64 — 206 T9. Ernie Els, $54,000, 72-66-68 — 206 T11. Kevin Sutherland, $46,000, 69-7266 — 207 T11. Wes Short Jr., $46,000, 69-68-70 — 207 T13. Jim Furyk, $39,000, 71-68-69 — 208 T13. Doug Barron, $39,000, 73-66-69 — 208 T15. Dicky Pride, $34,000, 73-69-67 — 209 T15. Tom Byrum, $34,000, 71-70-68 — 209 T15. Paul Broadhurst, $34,000, 70-7069 — 209 T18. Jerry Kelly, $26,400, 74-69-67 — 210 T18. Kent Jones, $26,400, 72-71-67 — 210 T18. Tim Herron, $26,400, 75-68-67 — 210 T18. Miguel Angel Jiménez, $26,400, 74-69-67 — 210 T18. Rod Pampling, $26,400, 72-69-69 — 210 T23. Michael Allen, $19,600, 72-71-68 — 211 T23. Steve Jones, $19,600, 72-69-70 — 211 T23. Vijay Singh, $19,600, 72-72-67 — 211 T23. Jeff Maggert, $19,600, 70-69-72 — 211 T23. Joey Sindelar, $19,600, 68-72-71 — 211 T23. Scott Parel, $19,600, 69-70-72 — 211 T29. Colin Montgomerie, $14,800, 72-7070 — 212 T29. Kirk Triplett, $14,800, 71-71-70 — 212 T29. Woody Austin, $14,800, 74-70-68 — 212 T29. Steve Pate, $14,800, 69-72-71 — 212 T29. Bob Estes, $14,800, 76-68-68 — 212 T29. Steve Flesch, $14,800, 71-69-72 — 212 T35. Glen Day, $10,667, 72-70-71 — 213 T35. Willie Wood, $10,667, 73-70-70 — 213 T35. John Huston, $10,667, 73-69-71 — 213 T35. Ken Duke, $10,667, 72-70-71 — 213 T35. Robin Byrd, $10,667, 69-72-72 — 213 T35. John Daly, $10,667, 74-70-69 — 213 T35. David McKenzie, $10,667, 69-7173 — 213 T35. Jeff Sluman, $10,667 70-71-72 — 213 T35. Marco Dawson, $10,667 73-73-67 — 213 T44. Scott McCarron, $7,200, 72-71-71 — 214 T44. Tom Pernice Jr., $7,200, 70-73-71 — 214 T44. Corey Pavin, $7,200, 72-72-70 — 214 T44. Rocco Mediate, $7,200, 71-70-73 — 214 T44. Stephen Leaney, $7,200, 74-70-70 — 214 T44. Lee Janzen, $7,200, 73-72-69 — 214 T44. Jesper Parnevik, $7,200, 72-73-69 — 214 T44. Billy Mayfair, $7,200, 72-73-69 — 214; T52. Joe Durant, $4,629, 73-70-72 — 215 T52. Mark Brooks, $4,629, 72-71-72 — 215 T52. Larry Mize, $4,629, 75-69-71 — 215 T52. Darren Clarke, $4,629, 75-69-71 — 215 T52. Jay Haas, $4,629, 71-73-71 — 215 T52. Chris DiMarco, $4,629, 69-72-74 — 215 T52. Ken Tanigawa, $4,629, 72-75-68 — 215 T59. Scott Dunlap, $3,400, 72-71-73 — 216 T59. Scott Verplank, $3,400, 72-71-73 — 216 T59. Mark O’Meara, $3,400, 73-71-72 — 216 T59. David Toms, $3,400, 74-71-71 — 216 T59. Esteban Toledo, $3,400, 72-74-70 — 216 64. Russ Cochran, $2,800, 74-72-71 —

217 T65. Brett Quigley, $2,400, 74-70-75 — 219 T65. David Frost, $2,400, 72-74-73 — 219 T65. Mike Goodes, $2,400, 75-76-68 — 219 68 Gene Sauers, $2,000, 74-68-78 — 220 69. Tim Petrovic, $1,880, 77-75-69 — 221 T70. Shane Bertsch, $1,640, 75-73-74 — 222 T70. Bobby Wadkins, $1,640, 76-74-72 — 222 T70. Olin Browne, $1,640, 76-75-71 — 222 73. Tom Lehman, $1,400, 76-74-74 — 224 T74. Scott Hoch, $1,280, 77-73-75 — 225 T74. Frank Lickliter, $1,280, 76-76-73 — 225 76. Duffy Waldorf, $1,160, 74-75-77 — 226 77. Rich Beem, $1,080, 78-75-74 — 227 WD: Dudley Hart, Stephen Ames, Peter

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