Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson are back at Augusta National, with the LIV Golf duo in the field for The Masters.
Mickelson has been labelled a Masters ‘long shot’, with three titles at the tournament already on his phenomenal CV.
Six-time major winner Mickelson triumphed at Augusta National in 2004, 2006 and 2010, with his fellow American Johnson winning The Masters in 2020.
Mickelson is one of eight left-handed players at The Masters this year, which gets underway on Thursday.
But on Wednesday, the LIV Golf pair were among the players getting to grips with Augusta, as shared by their fellow professional Michael Kim.
Michael Kim loved Augusta practice round with Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson
Also in the field for The Masters, the one-time PGA Tour winner continued his ‘Augusta Diaries’ on X, with his latest update involving the two golfing icons.
– Played 9 holes with Phil, DJ, Noah Kent. We had a 9 hole team match, Phil and I vs. DJ and NK. We were tied heading into 9. Phil from the pine straws hit it to tap in with the pin in the middle right tier. Noah Kent also hit a nice shot to about 25 ft. Noah drained the putt to tie the match. Yes, we played for something but we tied and I’m not sharing that detail, sry.
READ MORE: What Dustin Johnson texted Phil Mickelson straight after he won The Masters back in 2020
– Phil was just awesome to play a practice round at ANGC. We all know what the pins are and with so much experience here, he told me almost on every green which putt to try, which chip to try, and I tried to soak it all in as much as I could.
– The thing about Augusta is because the slopes are so big and so many funnels, so many shots end up in the same spots. That’s why you hear the saying you don’t read putts, you remember putts at Augusta. You have very similar putts year after year to pins if you play it enough. Phil had lots of notes for many of the putts in his yardage book. This one is slow, this one breaks left here but then breaks back this way. I tried to write down all of them on my book. DJ also was really cool at giving info as well.
– DJ hits that patented cut all the time and it’s exactly how you think it is. I’m very envious of his swing and how easy he makes it look hitting his shots. Noah Kent hits [bombs]. He was outdriving DJ comfortably haha
Michael Kim feels good about his Masters chances
Kim heads into The Masters after a busy start to the season, with the American having played 11 PGA Tour events.
The 31-year-old has made the cut in eight of those, with one runner-up finish and three top 10s to his name so far.
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But he does, of course, fall well short in his experience and honours list in comparison to the likes of legendary figures Mickelson and Johnson.
That led to understandable nerves in their practice round, but Kim is confident of a strong week at Augusta.
– I was pretty nervous on that first tee, teeing off with that group and wasn’t comfortable for a few holes but I’m happy with the way I handled it and how my swing felt as I got along the round. It wasn’t an easy day with the wind blowing 10-15 the entire day. The juices got flowing and I feel better prepared for tomorrow.
– Looking forward to getting this tournament started. It’s easy to get into the mode of “just glad I’m here” but I want to compete and play well. As long as I keep doing my thing, I feel good about my chances. Time to rest up for an early morning tee time tomorrow.
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