The PGA Tour schedule is back in action on Thursday for the first round at Pebble Beach and early on, Daniel Chopra leads the field as play is still going and he is up over Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk along with Jason Day, Stuart Appleby and Dustin Johnson for the AT&T Pro-Am golf tournament first round.
Mickelson comes into the tournament looking to win at Pebble Beach for the fifth time in his career and that comes after he won in 2012 and now he is trying to get into the mix on Thursday. Mickelson had to cut short his play at the Farmers Insurance Open due to back issues, but he said that he recovered well and now has no problems as he moves into the Pro-Am. Lefty finished 42nd last week at the Phoenix Open and this comes after he won that tournament last season and now he has the chance to get things back on track this week and this weekend.
Mickelson ended up 42nd at the Phoenix Open and last year at the pro-am he finished in 60th and now he has the chance to get things right at Pebble Beach. Mickelson said he feels very comfortable on the course and he spoke about playing some of his best golf there at the Pebble, Monterey Peninsula Shore and Spyglass Hill and he comes in after finishing in the top 10 eight times at the course and that sets him up for some success on Thursday and into the weekend.
Daniel Chopra is leading on the leaderboard in the early goings and through seven holes he was six under for the day and he was leading a number of other players at the top, including Dustin Johnson, Hunter Mahan and Stuart Appleby, who were all trailing by a few shots. Mickelson started off his day early in the afternoon and had a birdie on his first hole and he shot for par on the second and he started off on the back nine for the first day of the tournament. Tiger Woods is not at the tournament and this comes after he has had a rough start to the year.
Woods has not won a major in quite some time and after winning five times last season, he started off with two duds for his worst start in his career and now he is looking to rebound. He had a rough performance at the Farmers, which is a tournament he won last year at a course he has dominated, winning eight times at Torrey Pines and he didn't do much better at the Dubai Desert Classic, although he was able to make it to Sunday there. Mickelson comes in looking to get sharper as well and he will be looking for a good performance, as he is not going to play again on the schedule until the Honda Classic later on in the month.
Mickelson said that he is trying to get his short game back to where it was last season and he will be doing that at the pro-am, where names like Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Alex Smith will be participating.
