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Costly lift Mickelson given rare one-shot penalty at NEC
AKRON, Ohio (AP) -- Phil Mickelson failed to tell playing partner Jim Furyk before lifting his ball in deep weeds bordering the 16th hole, resulting in a rare one-stroke penalty that furthered his tumble down the leader board in the third round of the NEC Invitational on Saturday. Mickelson was alone in third place a shot behind Furyk and Tiger Woods as he stepped to the tee on the 625-yard 16th, also known as Firestone Country Club's 'Monster' hole. He sliced his drive far to the left. It cleared a row of large trees along the fairway and narrowly missed going out of bounds as it bounded into heavy weeds on the perimeter of the course. After a brief search, Mickelson found a ball, marked it and picked it up to identify it. He did not tell Furyk that he was lifting the ball to identify it -- a breach of Rule 12-2. The rule specifies that the player attempting to identify his ball must give his partner "an opportunity to observe the lifting and replacement." The penalty is one stroke. Mickelson said he had to pick the ball up to be certain it was his. Mickelson could not see any identifying marks that he thought he had placed on the ball. Many players use a permanent marker to put an arrangement of distinctive dots on their golf balls to aid in identification under rare circumstances such as these. "The ball didn't have my usual markings," Mickelson said. "I had gotten a new ball and it just wasn't marked. So when I went to identify it, I wasn't able to do so." Officials watched replays on television to determine that the ball Mickelson had picked up was the same ball he hit into the rough. Furyk was on the right side of the fairway getting ready to hit his second shot as Mickelson searched for his ball and then identified it. "When I marked it to identify it, I vocalized my intentions but I didn't vocalize it toward Jim, my playing partner, to give him an opportunity to observe me lifting," Mickelson said. Mickelson eventually chopped a shot into the fairway and then hit his third shot over the green. He hit a flop shot on, but two-putted for a bogey. When Furyk and Mickelson finished their rounds and were signing their scorecards in the trailer, tournament officials told Mickelson he would be assessed the additional penalty stroke. "Normally, you know, had he not found his ball, I would have been down there helping him look for it and he would have said, 'I'm just going to pick it up an make sure it's mine,'" Furyk said. "Normally it's something that doesn't come up." Mickelson ended up with an even-par 70 and trails Furyk by six strokes heading into the final round. "I'm going to have a tough time," Mickelson said of his chances of winning.
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