DUBLIN, Ohio – Your TV coverage isn’t buffering: Phil Mickelson is occasionally pausing while making a putting stroke.

As Mickelson explained after his final-round 78 Sunday, he began the stop-start stroke as a drill because he was getting quick in the transition.

“When I pause, (the putter face) is set and it goes through usually pretty stable,” he said, “and I’ve had pretty good success the first day and a half when I used it, and certainly at the end of the day today when I used it, too.”

It’s been a struggle on the greens this season for Mickelson, who entered the week ranked 126th in strokes gained: putting. This week he ranked 69th out of 74 players who made the cut.

“It’s obviously not what I want to do,” he said, “but it’s a great drill that I’ve used that I seem to be putting better with right now than without.”