Duval & Mickelson struggle to challenge

His chances of winning a major all but gone for yet another year, Mickelson stood outside the scorers' tent Friday trying to hold in the frustrations of yet another round gone bad.

"I just don't know what else to say," he said.

Nearby, a disconsolate David Duval was having similar thoughts. In a deep slump all year, he fought back to complete a decent opening round earlier in the day only to balloon to a 77 in the second round.

Two players who are supposed to provide the challenge to Tiger Woods in the majors instead barely managed to make it to the weekend in the PGA Championship. Both finished two rounds at 4 over, 11 shots back of Fred Funk and barely good enough to avoid going home early.

Somewhere along the tree-lined fairways of Hazeltine National Golf Club it had gone wrong once again, though neither would-be contender could figure out just why.

Yes, Mickelson made a double-bogey on his last hole to come perilously close to missing the cut. And, yes, Duval hit a terrible 2-iron slice off the second tee that would have made a weekend hacker cringe.

Both seemed at a loss, though, as to what they needed to do to reverse their fortunes.

"I don't know what else to do," Duval said.

About the only good thing to come out of the day was Mickelson and Duval both played early so they were able to finish their rounds in the storm-delayed tournament.

Mickelson had come to the season's final major with the higher hopes of the two, though he also was stuck with the mental burden of dealing with his failure to win in any of his 41 previous trips to major championships.

He's left with the slim hope that the wind howls on Saturday as expected and he somehow pulls off a miracle round.

He didn't sound terribly confident about his chances.

"I'm not really concerned about winning or getting into contention," Mickelson said. "I don't even know if a low round would get me in contention."

Mickelson finished the final holes of his rain-delayed first round at 76, and a chip-in on his second hole in the second round gave him some hope. But his familiar problems resurfaced as he missed several short putts and a lot of fairways.

"I bogeyed every hole I missed the fairway on," he said.

Still, Mickelson was 2 under for the second round until he missed the fairway on his last hole, hit his second shot short, chipped it into a bunker and missed a 5-footer for bogey.

A hole he thought he might birdie for some momentum and a bit of hope turned into another of the mini-disasters that seem to always happen to Lefty.

"I felt like I had a good round going," Mickelson said. "I just made a double."

Playing partner Greg Norman could sympathize.

"Phil never really got going. He couldn't drive the ball well and he kept putting himself in the wrong position," Norman said. "It just seemed like he was always out of balance and out of sync."

Unlike Mickelson, whose search for a major championship win dominates his career, Duval got rid of his own oh-for-the-majors label last year when he won the British Open.

Since then, though, the former No. 1 player in the world has been in a deep slump, missing the cut in both the Masters and U.S. Open and finishing in the top 10 at only one event in 2002.

At the British Open, Duval finally admitted he was having some swing problems. They continued Friday when he finished off his rain-delayed first round nicely enough for a 71, only to shoot 5 over in his second round.

"I'm just not hitting the ball good," Duval said. "When I'm on the practice range everything feels fine. It's not that I'm not doing it out on the golf course, either. It's just that I'm hitting a couple loose shots and today it was a little more than a couple - a few drives, a couple irons and greens. It's just killing me."

Duval had more than just a few of those in the second round.

He drove into the left bunker on the third hole, pulled into another fairway bunker on the fifth and promptly hit into the sand again on the next hole.

The 77 was bad enough, but it could have been a lot worse. If not for some short-game magic, Duval would have been on his way back home instead.

"I chipped and putted well," Duval said. "If I wouldn't have done that I would have made several big numbers."

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