Phil Mickelson hits ball from beer tent again, makes bet with fan during Barclays round

Unfortunately, Phil Mickelson is not going to make the secondary 70-man cut at The Barclays. So we won’t get to see if he can bomb a drive into the grandstand of the 5th hole and play it off the carpet for a third straight day.

Mickelson delivered the highlight of the day Friday afternoon when, instead of taking relief, he decided to play it out of the hospitality grandstand with beer bottles strewn about and fans crowding around him.

Saturday’s third round was played in front of much smaller crowds, as Phil, who started near the bottom of the leaderboard, had a tee time before 8 a.m. So when he bombed one off the cart path yet again at this short drivable par-4, there wasn’t as large a crowd to scatter. He could also make his way to his ball with far less obstruction and security.

Here’s video of the sequence, featuring a prompt “Not again!” exclamation as soon as the ball left the tee box (via PGA Tour).

This one was actually a tougher shot, with that tent up on the deck obstructing his view and line to the pin. But Mickelson, perhaps thanks to Friday’s practice, picked it pretty clean and dropped this one on the green for a two-putt par, which he said was “almost birdie.”

The maintenance crew at Ridgewood Country Club decided to have a little fun with the back-to-back shots out of the hospitality area. When fans arrived to that structure on Saturday morning, they found this:

Saturday morning’s shot also brought the paint cans back out early in the third round.

And we were off and running with a #PhilWasHere meme, the best of which has been retweeted by the PGA Tour.

In addition to the repeat shot out of the hospitality tent, Mickelson also had a little fun on his finishing hole Saturday. Knowing he was probably going home before Sunday’s final round, he accepted a wager from a fan. Phil put his drive off the fairway in some of Ridgewood’s brutal rough, where he made a three-outcome bet with the fan (via Golf Channel):

“Just $20. I gave him 4-to-1 odds. I would have made $5 if I made birdie,” he later explained. “A par was a push; bogey I lost; birdie I would have won.”

We saw Phil pay a bet and hand cash over the rope line to a fan at the Masters this year, but that was during a practice round and not competitive play.

Mickelson missed the green with his drive, putting it in more thick stuff behind the putting surface. So he decided to pay off the bet before he even walked up to the green, conceding a chip-in for birdie was probably not coming. He eventually made a bogey.

After a lost bet and two shots from the grandstands, we’re all worse off with Phil’s early exit.