| Akron,
Ohio - Phil
Mickelson is playing so well, he might just have to give up his vacation plans.
Mickelson continued
his mastery of Firestone Country Club with four birdies on the back nine for a
4-under-par 66 and a one-stroke lead over Tiger Woods and Craig Parry in today's
opening round of the NEC World Series of Golf. Mickelson
was going to take most of the rest of the year off, starting next week. At least
that was the plan until he won the weather-delayed AT&T at Pebble Beach and
finished second in last week's Sprint International
-- slam-dunking $626,000 into his bank account in the span of seven days. Now
sixth on the money list with just over $1.5 million in earnings, he's willing
to put some of his favourite things on hold. "I
was going to fly, basically," the avid pilot said of his vacation plans.
"I wanted to spend some time in airplanes, go to flight safety, get a couple
of different type ratings, and maybe ski a little bit. And I wanted to spend some
time with my wife. It's been a long year." Now,
however, if he were to win another big check in the World Series, he said he would
consider playing at least two and possibly as many as four more tournaments to
make a run at leading the tour's money list. Mickelson
has won more than $500,000 in four trips to Firestone Country Club and has finished
fourth, first and second the past three years. He
made the turn at 1-under, then birdied Nos. 11, 12 and 13 to take the lead. A
bogey at the 15th dropped him back into a three-way tie, but he rolled in a 15-foot
birdie putt at the 17th hole to grab the top spot by himself. "The
thing I like about Firestone is that it's difficult for players to separate themselves
from the field," he said. "It's a golf course where you can be patient
and not worry about guys shooting 8-under or 9-under. ... It played probably as
easy as it could have played today and yet only nine people were under par."
More than 4
inches of rain earlier in the week all but prevented drives running through the
fairways and finding trouble. The wet fairways also put a premium on carry off
the tee and that played perfectly into the plans of Woods and Mickelson, who rank
second and ninth, respectively, on the tour in driving distance Woods
had two birdies and 15 pars, then capped his round by dropping a 9-iron just two
feet from the pin on the closing hole for another birdie. "It's
nice when you can use your driver, especially since it's soft right now,"
said Woods, who used his driver on 11 holes. "You need something to fly out
there pretty far because the ball is going to hit soft. The longer hitters are
going to have more of an advantage on a golf course under these conditions. If
you look at the leaderboard right now, the majority of the guys under par are
usually the long hitters." U.S.
Open winner Lee Janzen, 41st in tour driving distance, was an example of how not
to play the course. He played the first three holes in 1-under and the next five
in 6-over. He also bogeyed three holes in a row on the back nine during a 78 that
left him 43rd in the elite 44-player field made up of international winners from
the past 12 months. Still,
Janzen drew one of the biggest cheers of the day. On the 17th green, his birdie
putt stopped on the lip of the cup. Janzen sauntered up to it, bent down to look
at how the ball could stay out and even turned to playing partner Vijay Singh,
who also peered at the ball, which remained stuck on the edge. Just as Janzen
stepped up for the tap-in, the ball dropped, the crowd roared and Janzen shook
his head while laughing. Parry
didn't fit the description of a long hitter, but he used a hot streak to climb
the leaderboard. Hoping
to rebound from what he called a "pretty ordinary to very ordinary"
year, Parry was 1-over through nine and then birdied the next three holes. "I
haven't made three birdies in a row all year, let alone in a good tournament,
so I was surprised," Parry said. Justin
Leonard, Open Championship runner-up Brian Watts, Japan's Shinichi Yokota, Greg
Turner and Tim Herron finished at 2-under 68 on the 7,139-yard layout. David Duval
and Ernie Els were the only others to crack par at 1-under 69. Singh,
winner of the last two tour events including the USPGA Championship, fought a
balky putter all day and shot a 71. Masters and Open Championship winner Mark
O'Meara shot a 72. | 
