They don’t call him ‘Phil, The Thrill’ for nothing. Mickelson made an amazing par yesterday at the par-5 10th hole, which drew rapturous applause from the crowd.

He first hit his tee shot out of bounds, then reloaded off the tee, split the fairway and hit his fourth shot to six feet and made the putt.

Later, he hit his second shot into the grandstands on the 18th hole, and followed that with an up-anddown for a birdie.

On Thursday, the American hit an aggressive second shot off the rough on the par-5 18th, hooked it into the sponsors’ tents for an OB, hit his fourth into deep rough, and hacked it to 10 feet and escaped with just a bogey.

Kaymer’s national pride

It was almost a case of wearing your heart on your sleeve, or more accurately, wearing your heart on your chest.

Martin Kaymer’s T-shirt during hissecond round yesterday had four stars embroidered on his chest – an obvious reference to Germany’s fourth World Cup last Sunday.

The German world No12 is a avid football fan – and supporter of FC Koln – and spent almost threequarters of his pre-tournament press conference discussing the national team’s victory in Brazil.

Stenson-ator strikes again

When the ‘Stenson-ator’ says he needs to eliminate mistakes, nobody thought he’d do it so ruthlessly and swiftly.

World No2 Henrik Stenson was so frustrated his superb play from the tee was not yielding results, he snapped his wedge over his knee like a toothpick on the 17th hole during the opening round on Thursday.

That was after he made a bogey from the middle of the fairway with his wedge on a par-4, something professional golfers hate to do.

After the round, Stenson said: “If I can eliminate those sort of mistakes, it (the game) really is very close to being a lot better.”