Mickelson’s ball isn’t wet, but in a hazard down the bank to the left. He’s got a shot, but a desperate swish is no good whatsoever, he’s still in the trees. He slams his third into the heart of the green, and will have a 30-foot put for one of his trademark absurd pars. Meanwhile up on 18, Hadwin sends his second into trouble down the left, and he can’t get up and down. Bogey is a sorry end to an otherwise fine 68. He’s -2. DeChambeau fails to hit his downhill par putt, and the ball stops a couple of apologetic feet short. That’s 5-5 and he’s back to -2. Meanwhile back down the hole, Mickelson sends a huge slice towards Lake Merced. “Darn it!” he curses, in that folksy way of his. Julius Boros’s record as oldest major winner (48, at the 1968 PGA) looks safe for another month yet. DeChambeau, having seemed in total control for so long, is beginning to look a little ragged. He sends his drive at 15 into rough down the right, and his ball nestles under some overhanging branches. He’s forced to punch out, leaving himself a good 100 yards short of the green. The subsequent chip is bang average, and he’s got work to do if he’s to avoid back-to-back bogeys. Li Haotong pars 9, and signs for an excellent opening round of 67. Meanwhile Paul Casey bundles his chip close at 13 to save his par. As we approach the last few holes, time to take another look at the leader board. -5: Day (F) -4: Scheffler (F), Kaymer (F), Schauffele (F), Cauley (F), Z Johnson (F), Koepka (F), Rose (F), Steele (F), Lorenzo-Vera (F), Casey (13) -3: Finau (F), Kisner (F), Berger (F), Woodland (F), Noren (F), Lewis (F), Li (F), Poston (17*), Hadwin (17), DeChambeau (14), Todd (12*) Casey’s second into 13 gets held up on the breeze and, like Frank Costanza, stops short. He’ll have a little work to do to get up and down to save his par. Meanwhile on 8, JT Poston chips in, and that’s back-to-back birdies. The reigning Wyndham champion is -3 through 17 holes. Back to the 14th hole, as imagined by CS Lewis. Bryson batters his second from the base of the tree into the rough to the left of the green. The distance between green and Narnia: 176 yards. But it doesn’t look as though he’s going to make good a fantasy escape, because he then sends a clumpish chip bounding past the hole, nearly going off the green on the other side. His 25-foot par effort is never dropping, and he’s back to -3. Better news for Jon Rahm, who scrambles par in the wake of that microphone-bothering drive. He remains at +1. Paul Casey continues to smoothly make his way around Harding Park. After a decent two-putt par from distance at 11, he knocks his second at 12 from 200 yards to five feet. In goes the birdie putt, and suddenly he’s right up there at -4! Meanwhile Adam Hadwin drops a shot at 15 to slip to -2 ... then picks it straight back up at 16. The Canadian is going along very nicely indeed. “That’s in Narnia!” Bryson DeChambeau drifts off into a fantasy world as he flays a wild drive deep into the jungle down the right of 14. His ball ends up by the roots of a very large tree ... but he’s got a route into the green, and the ability to take a full swing. He’s going for the green, all the way from Neverland. Shades of Sergio on 16 at Medinah in 1999. There goes the Rahm rag! He sends his drive at 13 into the trees down the right, and responds by tokking a nearby microphone with a hilariously petulant flick of his driver. The frustration of not being able to get going at all, writ large. His partner Mickelson finds the first cut to the left of the hole. His steady start - one under through 8 - seems a wee while back now. Bogey at 8, followed by a sequence of pars. He’s level and could do with getting going again. DeChambeau sends a monster fade around the trees at 13, then sends his second from 170 yards to kick-in distance. That’s one of the shots of the day. He tidies up and moves back to -4. Glorious, and a fine response to that dropped shot at 12. Meanwhile his partner Adam Scott moves into contention, raking in a 30-footer across 13. That’s his third birdie in five holes, to follow back-to-back birds at 9 and 10; he’s -2. But the third member of the group, Rickie Fowler, looks a beaten docket right now, uncharacteristically glum as his round unravels. He gesticulates to the heavens in impotent horror as he matches Fleetwood’s bogey / double bogey whammy, and slips to +3. Li judders with irritation as a fine snaking uphill birdie effort on 7 slips millimetres past the right edge of the cup. He remains at -3. Meanwhile double-bogey disaster for Fleetwood at 13, as his approach kicks left into a bunker, from which he thins his wedge over the green. In a flash, he’s back to level par. DeChambeau’s second into 12 leaks off to the right, and he’s fortunate it doesn’t settle in the thick stuff. Instead, it hops over the rough and stops generously on the fringe. But he overhits the chip, 12 feet past the hole. Having just shipped a shot at 11, this could be the moment his round begins to unravel ...but he stabs the par saver back up the green and into the centre of the cup. That showed real moxie. He remains at -3. Fowler meanwhile takes three to get down from the side of the green, and he slips to +1. Birdies at 4 and 6 for Li Haotong. He joins the best-of-afternoon group at -3, alongside Adam Hadwin, Paul Casey, Brendon Todd and Entertainment’s Bryson DeChambeau. Otherwise, it’s fairly quiet at the minute, art imitating life at the fan-free Harding Park. Trouble for Fleetwood at 12, as he sends a huge slice into the trees on the right, and can only hack his way up the hole. His third, a chip from 50 yards, gives him half a chance of salvaging par, but he pushes the six-foot putt he leaves himself, and the resulting bogey drops him back to -2. DeChambeau drops his first stroke of the round. His tee shot at the par-three 11th nestles onto the fringe at the back. A long birdie putt is left six feet short, and he can’t make the saver. He slips back to -3. But birdie for Rahm on 10, negating the bogey he had just made at 9. He’s been erratic all afternoon, with momentum at a premium. He’s +1. News of Paul Casey, still chasing that elusive first major at the age of 43. He’s playing the front nine in Brysonesque fashion, birdies at 4, 7 and now 8 bringing him up to -3. As well as being alongside fellow afternoon starters Adam Hadwin and the aforementioned Tommy Fleetwood, he’s also sharing leaderboard real estate with Cameron Smith, the 26-year-old Australian having birdied 18 and now 1, and Brendon Todd, who has played the back nine in 33. Tommy Ono Fleetwood nearly slam-dunks his tee shot at the short 11th. But it lands an inch to the side of the hole and bounds 20 feet past. One and one and one is three? Nope! He rolls a left-to-right curler into the cup for birdie and moves to -3! Meanwhile back on 10, DeChambeau is greenside in two. He delicately chips to three feet, and tidies up for a birdie that takes him within touching distance of the lead. -5: Day (F) -4: Scheffler (F), Kaymer (F), Schauffele (F), Cauley (F), Z Johnson (F), Koepka (F), Rose (F), Steele(F), Lorenzo-Vera (F), DeChambeau (10) Tommy Fleetwood is dressed today like John Lennon on the cover of Abbey Road, top to toe in white, with those famous locks spilling down his back. And here come a fat shot, it come grooving up slowly, landing in a bunker guarding the front of 10. He can’t get up and down for birdie on the easiest hole on the course, and doesn’t look particularly happy as he takes his leave. Does that frown count as joo-joo eyeball? Still, having birdied 4 and 7 he remains in good nick at -2. Since winning the 2017 Masters, Sergio Garcia has started 11 major tournaments ... and missed seven cuts. It’s already looking like those numbers will soon flip over to 12 and eight. He sends his tee shot at the long par-three 8th into thick rubbish to the right of the green. He’s shortsided, plus there’s a bunker in the road. He weakly flops his second into the sand, and doesn’t go particularly close with his splash out. He makes the eight-foot bogey putt, but he’s now +4 and wears the look of a man who doesn’t particularly care. Oh Sergio! Has it come to this?! (Bogey for Mickelson, too, incidentally, who also shortsided himself. He’s level par again.) DeChambeau makes his birdie putt, and he hits the turn in 32. He’s -3, and it’s been an exhibition of calm brilliance so far. His Tin Cup meltdown at Muirfield Village seems such a long time ago right now. Playing like this, only red ants can stop him. DeChambeau, with his spanking new driver shaft, belts a monster down the long par-four 9th. Then he arrows his second straight at the flag, leaving himself an uphill 15-footer for birdie. Love him or say you hate him even though you secretly like him, he always provides wonderful entertainment. “So there is a price to pay for bulking up like Popeye on spinach then,” observes Adam Hirst, “and that price is paid by the clubs. All he did was lean on it and it fell apart, the poor thing.” Rahm makes a head-cooling birdie at the short par-four 7th, after clipping his second to three feet from 50 yards. He’s back up to +1. Meanwhile bogey for Poston at 2, which drops him out of the group at -3. Here, on that subject, shall we remind ourselves of how things look at the toppermost of the poppermost? Why not. -5: Day (F) -4: Scheffler (F), Kaymer (F), Schauffele (F), Cauley (F), Z Johnson (F), Koepka (F), Rose (F), Steele (F), Lorenzo-Vera (F) -3: Finau (F), Kisner (F), Berger (F), Woodland (F), Noren (F), Lewis (F), Norris (11), Hadwin (11) DeChambeau chips up elegantly to kick-in distance at 8. He appears in total control of his game and his emotions today. He could so easily have allowed that driver incident to mess with his equilibrium, but he’s sailed on through and remains at -2. His partner Rickie Fowler, who had hit a 5-wood through the green, then a hot chip 20 feet back past the hole, makes the par saver to remain at level. (He had earlier dropped a stroke at 5.) The 8th is playing at 237 yards today. Most player have been hitting hybrids into it ... and only one in five of the morning starters found the green. DeChambeau is hitting a 5-iron. Mind you, he’s not on in regulation either, his skelp finishing short and left, much to his surprise. But it’s on the shorter grass, so up and down for par shouldn’t be an issue. He seems happy enough as he walks up the hole, fixing up his Cobra and laughing with his caddy: “It was bound to break, I’ve been using it for a long time!” JT Poston continues to shoot hot. After his run of three birdies in a row between 15 and 17, he missed a fourth by the width of a dimple at 18. No matter, because having turned in 33, he’s just made another at 1. The 27-year-old North Carolinian is -3. Meanwhile good news for DeChambeau, who scrambles his par after that wild club-bothering drive on 7, then receives his brand new shaft. His cronies have time to attach it to the driver head, too, because he’s about to play the par-three 8th. Back on 6, Mickelson has the decent lie his unlucky drive deserves, and he’s able to find the green before escaping with par. He stays at -1. Not so fortunate is Rahm, who can only hack out into thick greenside stuff, from which he can’t get up and down. He’s +2, and bubbling, you can tell from the fire in his eyes, though he’s trying his damnedest to keep a lid on it. Sergio, the third member of this group, is also having a shocker. Bogeys at 3, 5 and now 6, and he’ll not be righting the wrongs of 1999 and 2008 this time. DeChambeau batters another vicious drive down 7. It’s way off line. The camera cuts away ... then back to a sheepish looking player holding the head of his driver in one hand, a snapped shaft in the other! Has he snapped it in a glorious fit of pique?! It’s not clear, not even from the first replay of the sequence after the shot. But how could we doubt the young man? He was bending down to pick up his tee, supporting himself with his club, and the shaft gave way from under him. A quick check with the rules official, and one of his team is permitted to run off and get a new shaft, which he’ll be able to attach to the driver head easily enough. Bad / good new technology! Bryson DeChambeau blooters a 330-yard drive down 6, chips pin high to 12 feet, and rattles in the putt. He’s -2. Meanwhile the exciting young Norwegian, Viktor Hovland, low amateur at last year’s Masters and US Open, is going along nicely on his major debut as a pro. Bogey at 2, followed by birdies at 3, 4 and now 7. BREAKING NEWS: Phil Mickelson finds a fairwa... ah. Well, he had done, at last, but the ball took an absurd links-style bounce to the right and disappeared into thick filth. That’s exceptionally unlucky. Jon Rahm follows him in, though his ball was always heading that way. He’s fuming at his slow start: +1 through 5, and up against it to save par already here. Mickelson leaves his first putt down the green a good four feet short. The par effort is no gimme, especially as Phil’s been known to miss his fair share of short ones. But he nervelessly guides the slight right-to-left slider in, and remains at -1. A quick reminder that Lefty shot 66-67 last weekend, and tied for second at the WGC St Jude. You’re thinking it too, right? Mickelson has the magical short game of the great Seve. Sadly, he also drives like the much-missed Spaniard. Having flayed his tee shot at 4 behind some trees, he decided to play up a parallel hole, before wedging on and taking a couple of putts for his par. Now down 5 he’s hit another tree, meaning he’s only gone about 200 yards. He lashes his second, from 240, just over the back of the green, not a bad outcome all told. He’s more likely than not to make a two-putt par from there. However, it’s not 100 percent clear how he’s still -1, given the way he’s spraying it about from the tee box. Then again, this is why we love him, why we loved Seve. All part of the charm.