"I missed my putt for 11," he famously said after the round, neglecting to mention he hit four balls out of bounds.

On Saturday at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Phil Mickelsonmade his putt for an 11.

Though the PGA Tour doesn't keep records for big numbers posted by the world's best players, it happens … more than the average golfer might think.

"The mind-set of some pros is that they like to gamble," says Rick Martino, the director of instruction at the PGA of America. "They can shoot a low round, but they can also shoot a big number."

The game's best players, Martino says, can get caught up in the moment and try impossible shots.

Although he has been more controlled in recent years, Mickelson has been an aggressive player in the mold of Palmer. He once explained, "I can shoot par on any hole, but par won't win golf tournaments on the PGA Tour."

That was the predicament he faced Saturday. He was 2 under par and trailed the leaders by five. He drove the ball in the rough on the 573-yard, par-5 14th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links. He hoped to get the ball on or near the green for a chance at eagle, so he chose a hybrid club and tried to cut the corner. Twice, however, he hit the ball out of bounds. Each shot came with a penalty. His sixth shot spun off the green and into a muddy lie. He missed the green with two approach shots, got on the green with the ninth and two-putted for his 11.

Although he shot 78 and missed the cut, Mickelson said it wasn't because of the 11. "It was all the missed putts," he explained. "If I'd had anything go in, I wouldn't have had to force something at the end."

Mickelson is clearly not alone —Ernie Els joined him last week, in fact, taking a 9 on the par-5 No. 18 in the first round of the Indian Masters — and golf history has many examples of disasters among the game's best players.

Palmer had a number of adventures, including a 9 on No. 14 at Pebble Beach — the hole that also bedeviled Mickelson — in the 1967 Bing Crosby Pro-Am. He hit a tree on consecutive shots, and the ball bounced out of bounds both times.

In the opening round of the 1980 Masters, Tom Weiskopf knocked five balls into Rae's Creek at the par-3 12th and made 13.

Tiger Woods posted once posted a 9 on the par-3 12th at Muirfield Village during the 1997 Memorial at Dublin, Ohio. It came six weeks after he dominated The Masters for the first of his 13 major titles.

John Daly has had a few double-digit scores in his career — at least eight times by some accounts — but in 1998 during the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando he ended up with an 18 on the par-5 No. 6. He shot 85 and was 13 over par, all on one hole, a classic example of a player refusing to accept reality and play for a safe score once he got into trouble.

"He kept trying to hit the ball over the water," Martino says. "He knew he could do it, but it would have taken a perfect shot."

Unlike amateurs, who post a lot of high scores, the best pros don't let a bad number linger in their minds. Mickelson left Pebble Beach looking ahead to this week at Riviera Country Club, where the Northern Trust Open begins Thursday near Los Angeles. It's the same PGA Tour stop where Palmer made his dozen, nine years before Mickelson was born.

Briefly

The 64-player field for the Feb. 20-24 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship won't be finalized until next Monday, but the opening round of matches continues to evolve. Because Els (No. 4) won't be in the field and Brett Wetterich (No. 45) withdrew because of a shoulder injury, Anthony Kim will face No. 1 Woods and J.B. Holmes will play Mickelson.

Contributing: Wire reports

Enlarge By Jed Jacobsohn, Getty Images Phil Mickelson didn't have much luck on the 14th hole during his play at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Saturday when he shot an 11.