Channeling his inner "Tin Cup," Lefty decided to play a shot from a hospitality area to the left of the drivable par-4 No. 5 green at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey.

"If you hit it off line enough, you're going to see those spots," said Mickelson, who admitted it wasn't the first time he hit a shot from the grandstands. "[I] just hit the shot a little bit too far. I hit it clean. Just hit it too hard."

Upon realizing his tee shot had come to rest in a carpeted area, the five-time major winner announced to no one in particular: "I'll try to play it from there."

The crowd cheered with excitement.

After wading through fans and moving aside a few tables and chairs -- and a few beer bottles, too -- Mickelson eventually got to his ball. Once there, he drew a club and launched a wedge shot that carried roughly 10-15 rows of fans before coming to rest in the far greenside bunker.

"I hit a crappy drive, hit the cart path and went into the grandstands and my drop was going to be in hay," Mickelson said. "I had a clear lie on nice ground there and played it. I hit it a little too hard, went over the green, hit a bunker shot to 20 feet and made bogey."

Mickelson settled for arguably the most interesting bogey of the day, but after his round of 1-over 72, explained what happened.

"It wasn't hard to make contact," he said. "It was hard to hit it on that skinny little green and get it to stop. That was it. Just a bad tee shot.

"It's a great hole. It's the only hole you can reach under regulation here. The par-5s are not reachable. So you get really excited to get to that hole. I hit it great yesterday on the green. Had a great chance for eagle and then today hit a terrible shot."

ESPN.com senior golf writer Bob Harig contributed to this report.