Mickelson Struggles From the Very Beginning

CHASKA, Minn., Aug. 14 -- Phil Mickelson arrived here hoping to set a tone for the rest of his start-again, stop-again season, one dominated by time with his family after his wife had breast cancer diagnosed in the spring. But Mickelson sputtered from the start Thursday, missing a birdie putt on the first, struggling with the putter throughout, and taking a double bogey at the 10th en route to a 2-over-par 74 in the first round of the PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

"I feel like I'm throwing five, six, seven shots away on the greens," said Mickelson, the world's second-ranked player. "It's just been difficult scoring-wise. I don't feel like I'm playing as bad as I've been scoring."

Mickelson played in the U.S. Open, and he held the lead on the back nine in the final round at Bethpage Black, a remarkable accomplishment considering it was only his second tournament since the diagnosis for his wife, Amy. He skipped the British Open because Amy began chemotherapy treatments.

Mickelson's double-bogey 6 at the 10th came because of an error in what his considered his strongest suit -- his short game. In the rough along side a bunker with his approach shot, he dumped his chip into another bunker. He couldn't get up and down from there, and he sat at 3 over. He made the second of his two birdies on the day at the 11th, and finished with seven straight pars.

"I felt I should've been . . . somewhere in the mid- to high-60s today," he said. "If I don't throw away those little three-footers here and there, I'm a few under par."

Olympic Dreams

The International Olympic Committee's Executive Board voted Thursday in Berlin to recommend adding golf -- along with rugby sevens -- to the 2016 Summer Olympics, an outcome that keeps the sport's hope of returning .

The two sports are now submitted to the entire IOC membership for a final vote on Oct. 9. For either sport to gain entrance, it must gain a simple majority of the 106-member IOC assembly.

"We are obviously thrilled with this announcement," said Ty Votaw, a PGA Tour executive who spearheaded golf's effort for the International Golf Federation.

The vast majority of players at the PGA Championship said they supported golf's appearance in the Olympics, with Tiger Woods saying he would play in the tournament at age 40.

"It's a good thing," said Australian Robert Allenby. "I mean, they've got tennis. They've got tiddlywinks. BMX bikes. Let's just think about it: Golf is a sport and it's been around for hundreds of years, and it should be in there."

Covering Lots of Ground

One of the most surprising developments of the day came when the group of Woods, Padraig Harrington and Rich Beem was standing on the 11th green. The difficult par 5 is 606 yards long with an uphill tee shot, and was playing into the wind, so when a ball landed on the front of the green as the three players were lining up putts, heads turned.

"I first thought that somebody must have chipped out and hit the third shot up there," Harrington said.