Mickelson Gets Left Behind

It wasn’t the start that Phil Mickelson was looking for, but he settled for a two-over-par 73 in the first round of the British Open at Royal Troon and then headed for the driving range Thursday afternoon to see whether he could come up with some answers.

Mickelson, the Masters champion and runner-up to Retief Goosen at the U.S. Open, is seven shots off the lead after a so-so round in which he hit eight of 14 fairways and needed 31 putts.

“I didn’t hit the ball the way I wanted to, and I didn’t putt that well, but I was able to keep the ball in the right spot and salvage two over, which I wouldn’t consider a good round today.”

Mickelson didn’t take advantage of the scoring opportunities on the front nine -- he made nine pars. Whatever was off, he said he hopes he flips it on again soon.

“I hope it won’t linger, and I am hoping I will get it worked out on the range,” he said. “It was just a slight miss. The shots that I needed to get close to the hole for birdie, I just didn’t do it.”

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Fashion splash: For a change, Ian Poulter’s spiked hair wasn’t the story, but his trousers were. Poulter’s pants were in the pattern of the flag of the United Kingdom, the Union Jack. Poulter, from Hitchin, England, shot 71.

“I’ve had great fun all day. I’ve had comments all around the golf course, wolf whistles and ‘Love the pants,’ ” he said. “It just lightens up the day.”

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Tom Weiskopf is 61 and hasn’t played in the British Open since 1995, but he received a special invitation this week because he won at Troon in 1973. Weiskopf played a practice round Tuesday with Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara, but nothing really helped him on his way an opening round of 80.

Besides being one of the few to birdie the 222-yard, par-three 17th, there was one other bright spot -- he shot 45 on the front and 35 on the more difficult back nine.

Said Weiskopf: “I guess I win most improved.”

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The group of Ernie Els, Luke Donald and Justin Leonard played the 17th in a combined five over par.

Els and Donald each needed two shots to get out of bunkers.

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Rich Beem, who opened with a 69, on Troon’s deep bunkers and the deep philosophy required to play them: “One bad hop and all of a sudden you have to pitch out backwards, not even sideways. Going into the week, you know that’s possible. You kind of half expect it. So you take the good with the bad and hopefully there’s more good at the end of the week.”

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David Duval pulled out Thursday morning, saying he had a bad back. Duval has played one tournament this year, the U.S. Open, where he missed the cut. Duval played a practice round Tuesday morning with Davis Love III, Jay Haas and Brad Faxon.

Carl Pettersson, who was in the same pairing with Duval, didn’t know about the withdrawal until late.

“Me and my caddie realized about 30 minutes before the tee time we hadn’t seen David Duval,” he said. “And I realized then that he might not show up.”

David Griffiths replaced Duval and shot 75.