CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The scorecard often tells a different story than the way those numbers were achieved, and it seems only fitting that Phil Mickelson stood as a prime example on Friday at the Wells Fargo Championship.
In one of those "typical Phil'' type days, Mickelson managed to hit just four fairways at Quail Hollow Golf Club. He hit just nine greens in regulation. On his last three holes, he drove off the tee into bunkers.
At times, he looked exasperated, a tee shot not going where he intended, an iron shot not close enough to the hole.
And yet there is Mickelson, tied for fifth after a 2-under-par 70 that saw him make three birdies and a single bogey -- on his final hole.
"I scrapped it around,'' Mickelson said after finishing 36 holes at 139, 5 under par, and 3 strokes back of leader Andrew Loupe. "I missed the ball in the right spot a number of times. My short game is sharp. I hit a lot of good irons shots, but I had to play for par a little too many times because I didn't put in play off the tee.
"I don't want to say surprising, but I've been driving the ball really well heading into this week. Last week I had a great session, so I'm a little disappointed with the driver. But I think I'll get that turned around here for the weekend.''
Friday was the 50th competitive round for Mickelson at Quail Hollow and his 39th at par or better. He holds the tournament record for most top-10 finishes with eight in 12 appearances, including a tie for fourth last year and a third in 2013.
But Mickelson has never won the tournament, making it one of eight events on the PGA Tour in which he has competed more than 10 times without a win. At the top of that list is the U.S. Open -- the only major championship he has not captured -- which he has played 25 times.
"It reminds me of Augusta in that you don't have to be perfect but you do have to miss it in the correct spots,'' Mickelson said. "And your short game has to be sharp because the contours of the greens and speed of the greens are very severe, so your touch has to be on.''
Something was off in Mickelson's past two tournaments. After a strong start to the year that saw him post three top-5 finishes in six events, Mickelson inexplicably missed the cut at the Masters -- where he shot a second-round 79 that included a back-nine 40 and consecutive double-bogeys. That was after climbing onto the leaderboard early in the day.
Two weeks ago, Mickelson was a surprise entrant at the Valero Texas Open, where he had a first-round 77 and also missed the cut.
"I'm just brushing them off because those two crazy rounds that I had happened to follow my two best warm-up sessions of the year,'' he said. "Sometimes those things happen. I went back home and had a great week of practice. I really played well. I was hitting it a lot better this past week than I showed [in the first two rounds], and I feel I can strike it better.''
Mickelson, who turns 46 in June, has had a resurgence of sorts this year after not winning since his 2013 Open victory at Muirfield.
He parted ways with longtime instructor Butch Harmon in the offseason and switched to Australian Andrew Getson, who said this week that Lefty continues to get more comfortable despite what the stats say.
Now ranked 20th in the world, Mickelson is on the fringe of contention for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, and -- unlike many of his peers -- he is taking the hectic summer schedule in stride.
After next week's Players Championship, he will follow his usual routine of playing the two weeks before the U.S. Open (Memorial, FedEx St. Jude) as well as the two weeks before The Open (WGC-Bridgestone, Scottish Open). There is just a week between The Open at Royal Troon and the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, where he won that major championship in 2005.
"The way I see it is, if I can play well in the next months and somehow get on the team, what a great opportunity to compete in the Olympics,'' he said. "And if I don't, I've never had a three-week stretch of a break over the summer. So we'll end up going on a family vacation. So it's a win-win the way I see it.
"The family would come with me down to Rio [de Janeiro, where the Olympics will be staged in August] if I were able to make it. I'm on the outside looking in, but still hopeful.''
In order to play in the Olympics, Mickelson needs to be among the top four American players and be in the top 15 overall as of July 11 -- which is the Monday of The Open at Troon.
Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and Dustin Johnson occupy the top four spots at the moment, and Johnson is ranked eighth in the world. Mickelson would need to get past him -- or whoever is in the fourth position -- to make the Olympic field.
Patrick Reed (12th), Brandt Snedeker (16th), Zach Johnson (17th), Brooks Koepka (18th) and J.B. Holmes (19th) are ahead of Mickelson.
A victory at Quail Hollow would get Mickelson closer to that goal.
"I'm looking forward to it,'' he said. "It's a fun opportunity to get in some of the last groups, and hopefully a good round tomorrow will get me in the final pairing on Sunday.''