Golf’s beauty, cruelty on display in first round, and so is a fabulous Phil Mickelson

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The first day of the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte dawned Thursday as most sporting events do, full of hope and possibility. The weather was gorgeously springy, the fans were back in a COVID-limited way and 50-year-old Phil Mickelson was suddenly atop the leaderboard.

But golf also doles out its own particular brand of cruelty, as anyone who has played the sport knows. And quickly the field also began winnowing itself down, from 156 entrants to the one man who will win $1.458 million for first place early Sunday evening.

While fan favorite Mickelson’s startling first-round 64 was a crowd-pleaser in all sorts of ways — he leads by two shots entering Friday’s second round — Charlotte’s own Webb Simpson didn’t even make it to the first tee at Quail Hollow Club. Simpson had to pull out of the event at the last minute due to a lingering neck injury.

On Tuesday, Simpson was saying: “Man, it’s nice to not be staring at a suitcase across the room, leaving this week to get on an airplane. So I look forward to this week every year.”

By Thursday, though, he was back home, sidelined for his home event.

Fans watch the drives of players from the 17th tee box during first round action of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, NC on Thursday, May 6, 2021.
Fans watch the drives of players from the 17th tee box during first round action of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, NC on Thursday, May 6, 2021.

Max Homa, who won this event the last time it was played (in 2019), slammed shots all over the place while stumbling to a 42 over the first nine holes he played and a 77 for the day.

Adam Long slapped one into the water on the 17th hole, then hit from the drop area and sent a second golf ball in search of the first, splashing it, too. Long made a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3, looking thoroughly miserable while he did it.

The apocryphal quote that golf is “a good walk spoiled” — often attributed to Mark Twain, but there’s some doubt whether he actually said it first — seemed quite appropriate Thursday. For as lovely as the golf course was, its teeth were also evident.

There were some winners on the first day. Mickelson was the headliner, grabbing the lead late in the afternoon at a course where he has finished in the top 10 a tournament-record 10 times, but who has never won at Quail Hollow.

It was Lefty’s best first round of the year, and if he stays in contention through the weekend he’s going to add some needed juice to this tournament. Mickelson hit the ball beautifully, with eight birdies and only one bogey on his scorecard on the par-71 course, and said his mental focus Thursday was much better than it has been.

Korean golfer Kyoung Hoon-Lee also shot a first-round 66. And then there was American Peter Malnati, who has missed the cut in eight of his past nine events.

Kyoung-Hoon Lee watches the flight of his ball from a bunker along the 15th green during first-round action of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. Lee finished the first round with a 66.
Kyoung-Hoon Lee watches the flight of his ball from a bunker along the 15th green during first-round action of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. Lee finished the first round with a 66.

“There are times when I know I’m awful,” Malnati said afterward. “I’ve been way off for the last couple months frankly, but here in the last three or four weeks I’ve started to hit some really, really good shots. They’ve been flanked with awful ones and that’s why my scores stink, but the really, really good shots are there and they mean something.”

Malnati strung enough good shots together Thursday to shoot a first-round 67, which put him among the leaders.

Justin Thomas, the No. 2 golfer in the world at the moment, shot a first-round 69 and afterward said the wind was “all over the place.”

“The golf course is hard as it is,” Thomas said. “And when it starts doing that, it just obviously makes it harder. ... It was weird for us today. We played (hole) 15 and it was into the wind and it made that hole very, very long. We get off the green, go to the 16th tee, and all of a sudden that hole (which runs in the opposite direction) is into the wind.”

As for fans being back on the course: I’ve never been so happy to hear the polite golf clap.

The crowds aren’t normal, but it’s something. And for a tournament that was canceled outright in 2020 due to COVID-19, that isn’t nothing. With all its beauty and brutality intact, pro golf is back in Charlotte.

And so, thankfully, is Mickelson.