Mickelson's arrival delayed by tragedy

Checking out the scene at the Wachovia Championship:

-- Phil Mickelson’s arrival in Charlotte was delayed Tuesday for a tragic reason. Mary Lou Morton, the wife of Mickelson’s pilot Ted Morton, was killed in an auto accident near Phoenix early Tuesday.

Mickelson was scheduled to arrive mid-afternoon Tuesday but instead isn’t expected until later Tuesday evening. He will tee off at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in the pro-am.

-- Charlotte 49ers golfer Trevor Murphy had his clothes packed for a weekend trip to Orlando to join his teammates in the Atlantic 10 championship.

Instead, Murphy is in the Wachovia Championship after winning a two-hole playoff with Paul Claxton for the final spot in the qualifying event that concluded Tuesday morning at Firethorne.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play in a tour event but it’s come a little sooner than I expected,” said Murphy, who shot 69 in the qualifier then won the playoff with a par on the second extra hole.

Murphy said he felt conflicted about missing the conference tournament with the 49ers, who are expected to challenge for the national championship later this spring. However, coach Jamie Green encouraged his players to set high expectations and had no problem with Murphy delivering.

“It’s good for Trevor and good for our program for people to see how strong our team is,” Green said.

Walking around Quail Hollow Tuesday afternoon, Murphy was still coming to grips with what had happened.

“It’s very cool,” he said.

-- Brandt Snedeker is still being asked about his difficult finish in the Masters nearly three weeks ago and he’s still smiling about how people have continued to react to it.

Snedeker even called it “that debacle” and said Tom Watson, who had his own share of heartbreaks in major championships early in his career, called to talk about what happened.

“We talked for half an hour,” said Snedeker, who was a big Watson fan growing up. “Probably one of the highlights of my life was having him tell me he watched the round on Sunday and tried to help me out there.

“It made me feel like I had somebody to talk to about it and he told me if I had any more questions to call him. He’s probably going to change his number because I’ll call him so much.”