PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Phil Mickelson delivered more magic Thursday in the British Open, leaving one shot in a bunker and holing the next one from 75 feet away for an unlikely par. He tipped his cap. He gave a thumbs-up to the crowd.

It looked like the Mickelson of old, especially with all that gray stubble in his beard.

Mickelson, who opened with a 1-under 70 at Royal Portrush, already holds the major championship record for oldest winner, capturing the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island when he was 50.

Now he’s at the oldest championship in golf, the one that least discriminates against age. The Open is where 53-year-old Greg Norman had the lead going into the final round at Royal Birkdale in 2008, and more famously where 59-year-old Tom Watson was an 8-foot putt away from winning at Turnberry in 2009.

Mickelson, 55, was among three players 50 or older who broke par in the opening round, joining 53-year-old Justin Leonard (70) and 52-year-old Lee Westwood (69).

Thursday’s opening round concluded too late for this edition.

“The Open gives the older gentlemen a chance to win more than any other tournament,” Westwood said.

Westwood is playing the British Open for the first time since he joined Saudi-funded LIV Golf in 2022, going through final regional qualifying three weeks ago to earn a spot in the field.

He has yet to win in LIV Golf and his results would suggest he is riding out the rest of his career. And then he showed up at the major he first played in 1995 — Scottie Scheffler was not even born then — and found some form.

Links golf helps.

“There’s not the premium on carrying traps. They don’t make it unplayable for us older guys with length,” Westwood said. “You can use your experience, guile and cunning on them.”

Westwood tripped over his words on the Sky Sports interview and then added, “Not easy to say, but easy to use at our age.”

Mickelson, who has not won since that historic day at Kiawah Island, had missed the cut in all three majors this year. He still has five more years playing the British Open as a champion at Muirfield in 2013.

He started strong with a deft touch with his wedge to easy birdie range on the par-5 second, but the real Lefty showed up on the next hole when he put his tee shot into a bunker, plugged and not far from the steep lip.

The first attempt barely got out, rolling on the edge of grass before tumbling back into the bunker. It looked like a bogey at best. But then he splashed out, carrying it some 25 yards and about 10 feet to the left, and the shot had enough side spin to drop into the cup.

He raised both arms. Mickelson loves moments like these, and he’s had plenty of them.

“That was a crazy one,” Mickelson said. “It was really one of maybe two poor shots I hit, that bunker shot that buried in the lip.

“And then to make it was obviously a lot of luck. I was just trying to save bogey, and I got lucky it went in.”