Phil Mickelson sweeps up, Rory McIlroy cleans up on par-3 16th at Deutsche Bank Championship

NORTON, Mass. -- Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy are two golfers moving in opposite directions in their careers as well as the 2014 FedEx Cup playoff, and the way they played TPC Boston’s short No. 16 on Sunday pretty much summed up the states of their respective games.

McIlroy fired a 64 to move to 10-under, just two shots back of 54-hole leader Russell Henley with only the Labor Day Monday finish between him and a fourth victory in five starts. The world No. 1 nearly aced the 145-yard par-3 16th on his way to a flawless third round in the second of four playoff contests.

The four-time major champion, who started his DBC play out of sorts, needed just a tap-in to clean up his last of seven birdies on the day.

Mickelson, on the same hole, needed five shots and a towel (to clean clumps of mud off the front of the green) after his tee shot came up short of the putting surface. Two flop-shot tries from the muddy hazard -- and two putts later -- and Mickelson was in with a head-scratching double-bogey.

“Sixteen was probably my best shot of the day, held a little 9-iron up into the wind,” McIlroy said about his last bird of the day that he carded during a stellar round. “I knew that I didn’t really have to hit it overly hard and it would come back off the slope. Nice to make two birdies on those holes.”

Mickelson was cruising along in neutral at 1-under for the day and, though looking for some kind of spark, was in no danger of missing the secondary cut like he did last week at The Barclays. And then he got to 16.

Out with the dew-sweepers and declining to speak with the media afterward, Lefty’s ignominious double was not the only shot on Sunday he would like to have back.

Mickelson, in the video that was in the slot above before the PGA Tour deleted it on Tuesday, had some interesting badinage with his caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay.

“Come on, catch the fairway,” the five-time major champion begged his ball after one particular tee shot, which went wayward in an unexpected gust of wind. “Oh no. Is there not a left-to-right wind up there? Obviously not. Well, that worked out nice … Unbelievable.”

An approach shot with an iron elicited another “Oh, no!” as Mickelson bent over at the waist in frustration.

On the tee shot in question, golfer and looper agreed that a “hard wedge” rather than a 9-iron was the right club, but Mickelson watched in amazement as the ball dropped a few feet shy of the green and let rip with an oh-so Phil-like, “Oh my gosh!”

Things could have been worse for Mickelson, who began the week unsure if he would make it to Boston, complaining about the jam-packed playoff schedule, and calling his chances of advancing to next week’s BMW Championship a “crapshoot.“

Mickelson slipped from 57th to a projected 65th in the playoff standings. The top 70 will advance to next week’s BMW Championship in Denver, where McIlroy, following play at Cherry Hills CC, will roam the sidelines as a guest of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.

Sunday night, Manning’s Broncos take on his former team, the Indianapolis Colts, in each NFL team’s season-opener -- an event that McIlroy circled on his calendar when he decided to play in the penultimate FEC matchup.