The 30 years, four months and 10 days between victories is the longest in Tour history. Think about that for a moment: Mickelson’s victories have spanned from the 1991 Northern Telecom Open – a tournament sponsored by a company that specialized in telephone switchboards – to a major that was broadcast partly on a streaming channel and during which he told a drone camera to kindly buzz off. They all have that, and Phil has just carried that on for 35 years.” “I think it’s in the best players in the world at all times. Except Mickelson never lost belief, even when virtually everyone else did outside of his wife, coach and caddie. on a windswept course dubbed the hardest in the world. competing against the deepest major field of the year. This week’s PGA at Kiawah Island provided a similarly far-fetched proposition: an aging warrior with no form and oftentimes no idea where his wayward shots were headed. Lest we forget, at this tournament a year ago, Mickelson spent an hour in the CBS Sports booth, seemingly auditioning for the lead-analyst role while dunking on incumbent Nick Faldo even his agent confirmed it’d be a surprise if Mickelson didn’t don a headset in the next year or two.Īfter all, his stirring Open victory at Muirfield in 2013 was supposed to be the last gasp for this proud champion, a title he viewed as arguably his most impressive because of its unlikelihood. They seemed the hijinks of a man in the midst of a mid-life crisis, a fading Hall of Famer battling for relevance. The dalliances with the Saudis, the calves and the coffee, the hellacious seeds and the activated thumbs – it all made for easy social-media fodder but lacked any substance. Legends don’t like handouts.īut these days, Mickelson had become more of a sideshow than a serious threat. Open – the tournament that has tormented him, run by the organization that has occasionally roiled him. So far had he fallen, Mickelson recently swallowed his pride and accepted a special exemption into the U.S. Two weeks ago, he told his brother/caddie Tim that he was going to win soon, but, um, who seriously would have believed him? His neighbors in the Official World Golf Ranking were relative nobodies like Jason Scrivener and Laurie Canter. He hadn’t seriously challenged on the PGA Tour in nearly a year. “It’s certainly one of the moments that I’ll cherish my entire life,” he said.Įven for a superstar who has made a career out of doing the unthinkable, this one defied all reasonable explanation.Ī month shy of his 51st birthday, Mickelson hadn’t posted a top-10 in a major in five years. He struggled to contextualize the career-defining achievement. Listening to his gaudy list of accomplishments at his winner’s news conference afterward, Mickelson wore a dazed expression. Staring down the baddest man in golf, conquering one of the hardest courses on the planet and becoming the oldest major champion in the game’s long history, Mickelson displayed some vintage form and maintained focus just long enough to win this PGA Championship.Īlready one of the top 15 players of all-time, Mickelson now belongs in even more exclusive company, joining Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino with six major titles. Thirty years after first splashing onto the scene, Lefty proved in the most improbable fashion that he can still summon the goods when it mattered most.
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