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Mickelson makes it to Medinah after hotel catches fire

MEDINAH, Ill. – Phil Mickelson was allowed back into his hotel room and made it to Medinah Country Club roughly 40 minutes before his 11:52 a.m. ET tee time on Sunday.

Intense storms in the Chicago area that altered Sunday’s start at the BMW Championship threatened to end Mickelson’s 2018-19 season one round early.

Roughly 90 minutes before his tee time, Mickelson tweeted that lightning hit the top floor of his hotel, sparking a fire and leaving him unable to return to his room.

“I can’t get back into my room and may miss my tee times because I am without clubs and clothes,” he wrote.

Phil’s brother and caddie, Tim Mickelson, told Golf Channel approximately 20 minutes later that Phil had been allowed back in his room and would make his tee time, albeit with an abbreviated warm-up.

Mickelson pulled into his parking spot at Medinah just before 11:15 a.m. ET and emerged from his car wearing flip flops. Like everyone else who’s ever been late for a tee time, Mickelson put on his shoes and socks in the parking lot and then took a handful of swings with a training aid.

Mickelson estimated that he was locked out of his room for nearly 90 minutes, and attributed his eventual re-entry and subsequent arrival at Medinah to the power of social media. He then headed off to the practice area. Mickelson, who has become quite active on Twitter as of late, has nearly 418,000 followers.

The Eaglewood Resort and Spa, which sits next door to Medinah and has a dedicated gate to the BMW Championship for its guests, was the building struck by lightning.

Wyndham Championship winner J.T. Poston was staying at the same property. He was checking out of the hotel, but found that his car had been boxed in by emergency vehicles. He ended up walking onto Medinah through a spectator gate off the fifth hole, where a rules official picked him up and gave him a ride to the clubhouse.

About three minutes before he pulled into his parking spot, Mickelson thanked emergency officials and joked: “Turns out my clubs acted as a fire retardant. Lucky me.”

Mickelson did get burned, however, by Luke Donald, who continued their previous Twitter back-and-forth about greens books.

Mickelson went off the 10th tee with Brooks Koepka and Dylan Frittelli in the final round. It is unclear when he finally spoke to his mother.