Barkley has clearly been in some sort of golf boot camp like back in the day when he was part of the Hank Haney Project on Golf Channel. His swing is holding up fairly well under pressure and he once again finds the middle of the fairway off the tee. This allows Mickelson to go full flex with his calves and try to hit a bomb up near the green. 

“I’ve only seen one better resurrection,” Gary McCord quips of Barkley’s game in commentary. 

Mickelson does hit a huge drive that finds the fairway, but the 50-yard pitch would have to go over a bunker and find the correct tier of the green so he learns from the opening hole and decides to back his approach game from distance against Barkley’s short game. A clever shot to about 18-feet makes the strategy appear genius. 

Manning’s drive hooks into the left rough leaving Curry under enormous pressure given the momentum of The Match. The Warriors weapon steps up in the clutch and pounds a good drive up near the green, albeit into the left rough. The angle for the short wedge approach is a good one though. Manning, mindful of needing to get the ball to the back tier where the pin is located, is just a tad aggressive and sends the second shot into the back rough, but close enough for Curry to use his putter for their third. That effort rolls some 10-feet past the pin. 

Barkley’s attempt to win the hole with birdie from 18 feet is tracking, but ends up just short. It’s good enough though when Manning pushes his par putt. 

Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN
Hole Scores: Curry / Manning – Bogey; Mickelson / Barkley – Par
Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 2up Curry / Manning

Hole 5: (par 4, 423 yards)
 Trouble off the tee for both Mickelson and Barkley as they end up in the left rough on a slope. Manning finds the left first cut which gives Curry a chance to go hard at one. He tattoos it, but it catches a bunker on the left side of the fairway. 

“That was hit a long way,” Mickelson says of Curry’s shot. 

“Was that hellacious?” Curry asks.

“Yeah but if it is in the bunker you don’t want to go bragging about it,” Mickelson fires. 

As players reach the fairway, the chatter starts to take an even more competitive turn.

“What happened on that shot… I’d like to see a little more of those,” Manning says to Barkley. 

But after Curry finds a greenside bunker on approach Mickelson starts his world renowned talk. 

He calls his shot, letting everyone know he will put it to about 20-feet from the hole in a spot Barkley was practicing his putting from… and goes pretty close to doing just that, going a little long to the back fringe. And a slow motion replay brings more calf action in to play. 

“I have been in the gym every day activating them daily, they are ready,” Mickelson says. “You can see the intimidation has already begun.”

After Manning catches his bunker shot thin to the back rough, Mickelson starts announcing how two putts will be enough but “let’s make it anyway.” When Curry chunks a chip they confidently concede a bogey… “We don’t want handouts, we want to earn it,” Mickelson grins. Barkley takes a better shot saying, “We gonna run out of daylight,” when explaining the concession. 

Barkley puts the birdie attempt five-feet past and Mickelson makes the par, but only after the ball does a victory lap of the hole.

“We’re 14-0 down and the kid hasn’t got the kicking tee off the field yet,” Manning says. 

Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN
Hole Scores: Curry / Manning – Bogey; Mickelson / Barkley – Par
Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 3up Curry / Manning

Hole 6: (par 3, 131 yards)