Phil Mickelson makes his feelings clear on fans at | Golf News

Six-time major winner Phil Mickelson was full of reward for the fans in attendance at LIV Golf Chicago after he shot an spectacular 68 opening spherical at Bolingbrook Golf Club.

While Bryson DeChambeau could not comprise his frustrations with fans at LIV Golf UK last month after being heckled by a spectator, Mickelson, who sat T3 on the leaderboard in Chicago on three under heading into Round 2, couldn’t have been more complimentary of the fans in attendance.

“It was a good start. I just need to finish the round off a little bit more solid than I did today, and I think it’s going to be a great weekend,” Mickelson said after he completed his opening spherical with bogeys on 17 and 18.

“We always love coming to Chicago. The people here have been such great sports fans.

“For many years been coming right here and have had great help in the sport of golf, and it’s enjoyable to see the people out right here and the best way that they’ve responded to this match, and this course has been a fantastic host.”

He continued: “But again, I feel this course could be very thrilling to play because you might have holes where you can also make birdies and eagles, and you also have some actually robust pars, and you’re seeing some bogeys and doubles. I feel that makes for a actually thrilling weekend.”

Mickleson was tied in third alongside a host of golf’s biggest names, with DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, and Dean Burmester all having shot 68 during their opening round.

Had it not been for his two late bogeys, Mickelson would have led the tournament by a shot. Instead, he entered the clubhouse at Bolingbrook in Illinois a shot behind Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson. The latter came dead last at LIV Golf UK, but has produced a much better opening round performance this time around.

“I really feel like I’m always close, and it only takes a couple photographs right here or there where my sport just clicks back and I start taking part in good again,” Johnson said via Golfweek.

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“Got off to a little bit of a shaky start today but then began hitting some high quality photographs and rolled in a couple putts and variety of turned it around and completed off with a good stable day today.

“To be honest, even in the UK, I did not play nearly as bad as my score. I know my score was horrible, but I actually hit a lot of good shots. I felt like every time I hit a good shot it was a foot off from being really good and ends up in a bad spot. Obviously those greens and that golf course is pretty tricky. Just scored horribly.”