Associated Press
Sunday, February 11

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Phil Mickelson already was upset about hitting his tee shot down the bank of a canyon on the third playoff hole in the Buick Invitational. He was even more steamed when someone found his ball.

	Mickelson

	Lickliter

In a shocking conclusion Sunday, Mickelson and Frank Lickliter each hit three tee shots on the 17th hole in their playoff, even though only two of them counted because their original balls were found.

"It was a very unusual situation," PGA Tour rules official Mark Russell said.

If that wasn't unusual enough, consider the ending -- Mickelson wound up winning despite making a double-bogey.

With Davis Love III eliminated on the par-3 16th with a bogey, Mickelson hit first on the 17th tee and blocked his drive out to the left, over the trees and into the canyon.

All Lickliter needed was to find a flat piece of ground in play and he likely would have won. But he hooked his drive, his worst shot of the day, into the same spot.

Both hit provisional tee shots, assuming the balls would not be found, and those drives were safely down the middle.

Under Rule 28, a ball that is unplayable must be dropped within two club lengths of where it stopped with a one-stroke penalty, or played again from the tee with a one-stroke penalty.

Once the balls were found, they had to scrap the provisionals and hit over.

Mickelson waited to see if Lickliter found his ball first. It was located easily, but impossible to drop within two club lengths of where it was.

"If you find the ball, the provisional is no good," he said.

Mickelson was hopeful his ball would not be found because his provisional already was in great shape in the fairway. So, when a man went on a scavenger hunt through the shrubs in the canyon, Mickelson pleaded with him to abandon the search.

"Didn't I tell those people not to go down there?" he barked angrily at his caddie.

But as the man climbed the canyon, he spotted another ball. It belonged to Mickelson.

"Once that ball was found, he was obligated to identify it as his," Russell said.

After he won, Mickelson was a little more congenial about the search.

"I had asked the gentleman to please stop looking for the ball," Mickelson said. "He found one more, and it happened to be mine. He was trying to do his job. I just wished that he didn't do it so effectively."

After going back to the tee, Lickliter hit a great drive down the middle and Mickelson also went back to the canyon before a tree spit it into the rough. The best he could was to hit his approach to 25 feet for a two-putt double-bogey.

It turned out to be a winner.