Lahiri falls short at La Quinta as Mickelson continues to lead

By Rahul Banerji

Anirban Lahiri narrowly missed out on making the grade at the Desert Classic in La Quinta, California, by one shot even on Saturday as Phil Michelson continued to forge ahead at the head of the leaderboard with a three-under par round

Lahiti had three dropped shots against two birdies in his round of one-over par 73 against a seven-under 65 on day two and his three-day total of 8-under 208 was not good enough to send him into Sunday’s action at an event where the cut comes after 54 holes.

After six holes played to par, Lahiri had two consecutive bogeys and though he was to pick up two shots on his inbound nine, a third dropped stroke on his way back proved to be fatal for his hopes.

The bogey in fact came just after he had picked up the one shot needed to play through to Sunday, but it was not to be.

Three-way battle?

Meanhwhile, at the other end of the chart, Michelson will be joined for his final round by Canada’s Adam Hadwin and Tour rookie Adam Long as he seeks to become only the third start-to-finish winner in the 60 years of the Desert Classic’s history.

Michelson (-22) leads Hadwin by two and is three ahead of Long, who’s making only his sixth PGA start and if he does go ob to complete the victory, it will be his 44^th career Tour title. .

 “I just love being in contention, having a chance to win, being in the final group, feeling the nerves, feeling that excitement, the opportunity,” Mickelson said.. “It’s really fun.”

And on Sunday, he will be up against the toughest of the three courses in use this week, the PGA West’s Stadium Course. So far during the weekend, Lefty has made just score in excess of 72 and was bogey-free on the course on Saturday even though he found just six fairways off the tee.

Going to plan

 “I played OK. My game plan of playing the Stadium Course is to actually hit drivers and to try to bomb it down there as close to the greens as you can.

“It’s a course you don’t have to be perfect on. You have to hit a lot of good shots in certain spots, but if you miss it properly, you can still play this golf course.

“I feel like I don’t have to be perfect. I can come out, play aggressive, which is how I like to play, try to crush drivers and get it down as close as I can to the greens and see if I can make some more birdies.”

The consistent Hadwin is 79 under par at this event since 2016, well ahead of Mickelson at 58 under.  “I’ve had a chance these last few years now,” he said. “I’ve been close.”

As a matter of fact, in the last three Desert Classics, he’s never finished below sixth and has seven consecutive rounds of 68 or better at La Quinta, pgatour.com said.

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