Troon, Scotland ? Phil Mickelson stood on the first tee Friday seven shots back and in real danger of missing the cut. Arnold Palmer is his role model, and Mickelson needed a Palmer-like charge — and fast.

The day before he had hit 3-wood and missed the fairway badly. Now there was no choice — the driver was coming out of the bag no matter what trouble lay ahead.

Mickelson banged the ball down the fairway, pitched it on and made the birdie putt that started it all. A few hours later, his smile seemingly frozen on his face, Lefty was back in contention.

Now he only can hope he draws one more parallel to Palmer before the weekend is over: win the British Open.

“I thought a good solid round and I would get back in contention,” Mickelson said. “Three or four under par would be a round that wouldn’t be overly difficult, but to shoot five or six, I’d have to do something a little extraordinary.”

Mickelson’s round was a bit extraordinary, especially after he opened with a 2-over 73 that threatened to extend his miserable British Open record.

On this day, he was aggressive from the first tee on, staying out of trouble to tie the best round of the Open after shooting a 66 that left him four shots back with a weekend of golf to go.

“What changed was I executed better,” Mickelson said. “Yesterday I came out of a couple of shots. I was a little tentative and didn’t play the birdie holes aggressively — I played for pars too much.”

Palmer, of course, never played for pars. Neither did Mickelson for much of his career, before deciding during the offseason that sometimes it was better to lay up every now and then and not always flop wedge shots around the greens.

Phil Mickelson plays from the fairway on hole No. 6 at the British Open. Mickelson is four shots behind the leader after a 5-under-par 66 Friday in Troon, Scotland.

That strategy paid off with a breakthrough win at Augusta and nearly won Mickelson his second major last month at Shinnecock Hills before he three-putted from five feet on the 71st hole of the U.S. Open.

When you’re seven shots down after 18 holes, though, sometimes the strategy needs to change.

Mickelson came out firing at pins, making birdies on four of the first six holes on the down-wind front nine at Royal Troon where birdies often are available. He then held on on the more difficult holes coming in, parring the rest of the way before adding a final birdie at the par-5 16th.

“It was a wonderful round,” said Mickelson, who never has finished better than 11th in 11 Opens. “I was very pleased the way I got off to a quick start. You have to make birdies on the first nine holes here and I made it on four of them and then hung on on the back.”