Phil Mickelson is tuning up for Bethpage Black and the US Open. It might help if he can find a way to finish off the 18th hole at the TPC Southwind better than double bogey. Playing the final three holes of his second round at the St. Jude Classic on Saturday, Mickelson started with a birdie that dropped him to 5 under, but then went bogey and double bogey on No. 18 for a second straight round. He finished with an even-par 70 that left him 2-under 138 in his first tournament since announcing his wife has breast cancer. He is eight strokes behind Brian Gay, whose 66 Friday gave him the clubhouse lead at 10-under 130 when play was suspended because of thunderstorms with 78 players on still on the course. Robert Allenby finished a 64 on Saturday and was a stroke back. Bryce Molder (63) and Vaughn Taylor (65) were tied at 132. John Daly made the cut at even par and will play the weekend in his first PGA Tour event since returning from a six-month suspension. Sergio Garcia (3 over) and defending champ Justin Leonard (5 over) were among those missing the cut. After completion of the second round on Saturday morning, PGA Tour officials sent the 76 players who made the cut off both tees in threesomes trying to get back on schedule. The storm brought heavy rains to the TPC Southwind that should help scoring on a course golfers already had found receptive. Allenby ended Friday off a bogey but rebounded Saturday with a birdie on his 18th hole to pull closer to Gay. Woody Austin (66) was at 133 in a group that included David Toms, the two-time champ here (66). Rich Beem (68) and Loren Roberts (67) were among those at 134. Nordqvist leads by one In Maryland, Swedish rookie Anna Nordqvist held a one-shot lead over Australian Lindsey Wright with nine holes to go in Saturday's third round of the LPGA Championship before play was suspended because of lightning. Nordqvist, 22, made two birdies on the front nine of Bulle Rock to reach 10 under par, one better than Wright. Two shots back was 21-year-old Choi Na-yeon of South Korea, who had four birdies in a blistering outward nine of 32 that lifted her to nine-under before a bogey at 11 pulled her back. Choi was very nearly another shot better as her tee shot at the 151-yard, par-three seventh short-hopped the stick leaving her with a three-inch tap-in for birdie. Nordqvist began the day with a one-stroke lead over American Nicole Castrale, who bogeyed the second hole and the fifth to slip back.
