Phil Mickelson taunts Jason Day at Presidents Cup after his monumental rules gaffe

Phil Mickelson somehow took one of the most egregious errors he’s ever made in competition and turned it around on his opponents during Friday’s Presidents Cup match.

“We spotted the Internationals’ best team two holes and they still couldn’t beat us,” Mickelson said after he was correctly penalized and erroneously disqualified from the same hole for switching golf balls on the seventh. “Just sayin’.”

The Mickelson-Zach Johnson tandem was all square with Jason Day and Adam Scott through six when the senior member of Team USA made what he later termed a “rookie move.” Though Mickelson contended several times he had never heard of the one-hole adjustment regulation that requires players to use the same model ball throughout a match, he took the blame for his gaffe and let rules officials off the hook for theirs (read a full account of the chaotic mess that occurred while you were sleeping).

“It’s not their responsibility for me to know the rules,” he said after the session in which he put a firmer ball into play for more distance, scooped up his ball from the seventh fairway after his incorrect DQ, and fought back to all square after Day/Scott went 2-up following the comedy of errors.

“It’s the player’s responsibility to know the rules and if I had a question I could have asked,” reasoned Mickelson, who “refocused” with a birdie on 11 and and a 138-yard shot from a fairway bunker for eagle on the 451-yard, par-4 12th.

Mickelson was not quite willing to accept that his team’s rebound constituted a victory, but he threw a bit of shade at the Internationals, who rallied from an opening-day 4-1 deficit to make it a one-point ballgame (5.5-4.5) heading into the weekend.

“Zach and I spotted the Internationals, the best team they have, two holes,” he said, “and we got a push.”

Whatever happens in the end, Mickelson, who was a controversial captain’s pick, has proven the skeptics wrong with his play and leadership in his 11th Presidents Cup appearance. While some teammates — including ZJ — were openly frustrated about the way officials botched the one-ball ruling, Mickelson got them to calm down.

“Phil put his arm around Zach,” observed Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, “and said ‘let it go, let’s move on to Saturday.’”

Mickelson, who injected a Suzann Pettersen/Solheim Cup-type moment into what appeared to be another ho-hum U.S. blowout win, wasn’t quite done talking trash to the home team.

Should be quite the weekend in South Korea.

SB Nation video archives: Urban golfing with a US Open champion (2012)