2021 PGA Championship: Phil Mickelson fighting multi-front battle as last, best chance for final major awaits

A sixth major, history and a reminder of his Hall of Fame-level play await Mickelson in South Carolina on Sunday

Phil Mickelson always seems to be fighting a multi-pronged war. Over the course of his career he has -- for various, overlapping periods of time -- battled an errant driver, an inability to close out his nation's biggest event, unwise decisions engendered by immense hubris and even, briefly, the Securities and Exchange Commission. This week's fight, as Lefty (-7) holds the 54-hole lead at the 2021 PGA Championship by one over Brooks Koepka, is as emotionally taxing as any he's ever taken on in a single week. Mickelson shot a 70 on one of the best major championship Saturdays in recent memory. His round looked like a graph of a penny stock Mickelson has surely invested unholy sums into. He went out in 32 as histrionics settled in over the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island. It started to feel like a Rory McIlroy redux when Lefty birdied No. 10 to get to 10 under with the par-5 11th in front of him. He made par there, though, which seemed to briefly quell the coronation that was beginning to unfurl. A bogey at No. 12 was a small step back, but everything was fine until everything was not fine on the 13th. Mickelson, who has driven it quite well this week, jerked a drive into the water on that par 4. After determining it did not cross land (which an overhead video replay confirmed to be accurate), he hit his third off the tee and made double bogey to drop to 7 under. Five straight pars to close out his round -- a few of them incredible, a few others horrific -- gave him a 2-under 70 and the solo lead going into Sunday.