SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Some of the greatest highlights in sports are derived from in-game adjustments, those crossroads moments when a player or team addresses a problem on the fly. It might be a football team switching from man to zone coverage to prevent a single defender from being exposed, or a hockey team juggling its line combinations to find a spark.

PGA TOUR veteran Keith Mitchell, an avid sports fan and good friend of reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen, knows plenty about in-game adjustments. He made one of his own at the WM Phoenix Open, and it brought him into contention at one of professional golf’s most raucous events.

Mitchell opened with rounds of 68-66 at TPC Scottsdale for an 8-under total, four back of Thomas Detry through Friday’s morning wave. The University of Georgia alum signed his card Friday on a streak of 31 consecutive holes without a bogey, after playing his first five holes Thursday in a frustrating 2-over.

Players are often asked a simple question in these situations, “What changed?” and the answer often veers into the cliché – there were just a couple bad breaks early or a couple of burned edges. Mitchell, though, offered a crystal-clear reason for his turnaround: after employing a new left-hand low putting grip for the WM’s first five holes, he reverted to a conventional putting grip (his normal grip) for the sixth green and beyond. The results were immediate; after missing from inside 10 feet on three straight holes (Nos. 3-5 Thursday), he didn’t miss from inside 10 feet across the next 31 holes.

It was an unprecedented mid-round change for Mitchell, he said Friday, but it was made easier in that he was returning to a technique that he knew well – and with the same putter. Also, he figured his time in Arizona would be short-lived if he didn’t change things up.

“I was desperate,” Mitchell said Friday. “I was not going to make the cut, let alone shoot under par if I continued to putt like I did those first five holes … No. 6 just felt normal. I was hoping that the left-hand low would spark something better than normal, and it did the opposite, made it worse. So I knew what I could do with just my conventional grip, and clearly putted great since then.

“If there was a reasoning for why people putted great every time, I think everyone on TOUR would do it. It's kind of just whatever works for you that day. I'm just going to stick with what I've been doing.”

Mitchell arrived in Phoenix at No. 85 for the season in Strokes Gained: Putting, and he’s gaining more than a half-stroke on the field through two rounds at TPC Scottsdale. He has fared reasonably well in 2025 so far, with results between T21 and T33 in each of his first three starts, but he grew curious and wondered if a tweak might make things better. Through five holes, it was clear that a new putting grip wasn’t the answer. Perhaps there are insights to glean from the experience.

“Oh, man, there's got to be (a lesson) somewhere,” Mitchell said Friday. “Maybe you can help me get to the bottom of it. The only time I've won (at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches in 2019), I put a new putter in play that Monday and putted great. I was like, maybe if I put a new grip in play this week it'll do the same kind of magic, and no. Well, not for five holes.

“I didn't putt great at (last week’s AT&T) Pebble (Beach Pro-Am) and felt like maybe I could just try to find something, magic in a bottle somewhere, and maybe left-hand low would be the trick, and it was clearly not the trick. It was worth a shot.”

This marks Mitchell’s seventh career start at the WM Phoenix Open, and he has fared well with three top-20s in six prior appearances. Mitchell, 33, enjoys a good laugh outside the ropes but said Friday he’s striving to better convert that nature to competition. It’s something he admires about Allen, his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am partner from 2022 to 2024 (Allen didn’t compete this year).

“I think his ability to compete while having fun at the same time,” Mitchell said, “is something that I would like to do better at.”

No place like the WM Phoenix Open to embrace the arena – and call some audibles when needed.