Phil Mickelson's Masters going the wrong way

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta National is exceptionally hilly – like the chart on a heart-rate monitor, only on grass.

And the greens are no different, which is how Phil Mickelson hit a 62-foot putt on No. 9 that ended up 27-feet from the hole. Mickelson rolled the putt up the hill, toward the pin, then as he went to mark it could only stop and watch as it rolled back down.

This is where it initially stopped:

This is when it started rolling:

And this is where it ended up, 27 feet from the cup:

That led to a second straight bogey in his third round of the Masters and served as a microcosm of Mickelson’s front nine: he started birdie, birdie, then it was all downhill from there.

While playing partner Jordan Spieth was marching up the leaderboard with a 3-under 33 on the front, Mickelson finished his front bogey, par, bogey, bogey to make the turn at 3-over. That put him nine strokes back of the lead at the time and effectively out of contention.

Mickelson stopped the bleeding on the back nine, but took back only one stroke in what had to be a disappointing day. Starting off birdie-birdie, it looked as though he was going low. Instead, he finished with a 2-over 74 that has him eight strokes back heading into Sunday’s final round.

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