Glover Leads, Mickelson In Contention At British Open

Following today's Second Round of The Open Championship, there were two things showing on the leaderboard that made people do a double-take: an American is tied for the lead, and Phil Mickelson is actually in contention to win The Open. Most people probably saw that, rolled their eyes and said, "Yeah right! I'll believe that when pigs fly." Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it is a bit surreal.

With a score of even-par 70 today, Lucas Glover now shares a tie for the lead with Darren Clarke from Northern Ireland. Glover, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, is looking to become the first American to win a major since Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters.

Links golf and Mickelson haven't really agreed over the years: the golfer affectionately known as "Lefty" has played in 17 previous Opens and never won. He has had only one top-10 finish, and that was seven years ago. But after two rounds, and despite missing several short putts over the first two days, a 69 has made him a factor and sits 3 shots back of the lead.

In fact, this performance by Mickelson is so crazy that his own caddy Jim "Bones" Mackay is even impressed.

Today's round … from a ball-striking standpoint, was one of the very best rounds I've ever seen him have. Ever seen.

On top of his play, Lefty has also shocked the media by saying that he actually likes Links Golf  and that he doesn't care about the statistics behind his past performances at The Open Championship. Before you know it, Mickelson is going to tell the media he prefers talking about cricket or Premier League soccer over golf. This "new" Phil Mickelson is starting to scare me, and it should scare his competition as well.