Golf-Mickelson misses cut in Houston, Casey tied for lead

HOUSTON, April 4 (Reuters) - World number two Phil Mickelson missed the cut at the Houston Open when the weather-delayed second round was completed on Saturday, with Britain's Paul Casey among a group of five players tied for the lead.

Mickelson followed his opening 77 with a four-over-par 76 in his warm-up event for next week's U.S. Masters.

Despite missing the cut by 10 strokes at Redstone Golf Club, the American was not too concerned about his game going into the first major of the year.

"It was really good I played here because I made some mistakes during the first two rounds that you just can't do competitively," left-hander Mickelson told reporters.

"I drove two balls in the water off the tee ... stuff like that I needed to get out of my system here.

"It doesn't feel like my game is far off. I'm not overly concerned with what the numbers showed. I hit a lot better iron shots today and I'm looking forward to next week."

Triple champion Vijay Singh also missed the cut as Casey was joined atop the leaderboard by Australians Geoff Ogilvy (69) and John Senden (71) and Americans Colt Knost (70) and Tommy Armour III (70).

Casey fired a 70 on Friday to take the clubhouse lead at eight-under 136 before play was suspended in fading light.

(Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Rancho Mirage, California, editing by Tony Jimenez. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)