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What will Phil do next has long been a query that’s followed Phil Mickelson in a World Golf Hall of Fame career full of plenty of laughs and hitch-up-your-pants adventure, thrilling victories and crushing defeats.
Thus it seems appropriate to pose the question once again as he prepares to blow out 50 candles on his birthday cake on June 16. If asked, the new quinquagenarian knows one thing for sure – he will not go gentle into that good night.
“It’s just a number,” Mickelson told Golfweek. “I don’t really feel any different. There’s still a lot of time ahead to get a lot of things done.”
Starting with a celebration in his San Diego home with family and friends instead at the now-postponed U.S. Open this week. And as he neared making the turn in his life at 5-0, and with the COVID-19 pandemic putting a 91-day halt on the PGA Tour, Mickelson had plenty of time to look back on a half-century of life.
And smile.
His thoughts often turned to his family, which has always been his priority – his parents, Phil and Mark, his brother, Tim, and sister, Tina, and his beautiful wife, Amy, and two daughters and one son.
His other love has produced a bountiful of memories, as well, from the days he started copying his father’s swing in the back yard and thus turning himself into a left-handed golfer despite being a natural righty.
The three NCAA individual titles, becoming the first left-hander to win the U.S. Amateur, winning his first PGA Tour title as an amateur, cashing in on 100s of money games on Tuesdays. Three green jackets, one Claret Jug, one Wanamaker Trophy, a record six silver medals in the U.S. Open. Forty-four PGA Tour wins, numerous Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup wins, a record 25 consecutive years in the top 50 in the official world rankings.
Phil Mickelson by the numbers: Key career accomplishments
And friendships around every dogleg.
“It’s just weird to me how fast everything has flown by,” Mickelson said. “I used to look at guys who were 50 and thinking they were really old and now that’s me and I don’t feel old. I just can’t believe how fast all the time on the PGA Tour has blown by. When I go to tournaments now, I realize I have played certain events 20-plus times and I can’t get over that.
“Every time I go to Augusta National I still feel like a kid and I’ve played there almost 30 times. It’s amazing. And I look back and think about all the fun that we’ve had. I think about winning my first major in 2004 at the Masters and I can’t believe it’s been 16 years. It just doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. And I feel the same way about winning there in 2006 – that’s 14 years ago. Winning in 2010 – that’s 10 years ago. I just can’t believe that.”
As he looks ahead, his itinerary, for now, does not include any travel to the PGA Tour Champions. Mickelson is eligible to play the senior circuit starting with the Ally Challenge July 31 in Michigan.
Earlier this year, he said he wouldn’t head to the PGA Tour Champions until he stopped “hitting bombs. But I’m hitting some crazy bombs right now.”
But Mickelson, who has won six of his 44 Tour titles after turning 40, knows just seven players have won on the PGA Tour after turning 50. When he won in Mexico at 47, he boasted he would win 50 titles on the PGA Tour. When he won at Pebble Beach at 48, he backtracked a bit.
And this year he’s missed five cuts in seven starts, including in last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge as the PGA Tour resumed its season.
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“I believe I can still play golf at the highest level but I’m going to see how this summer goes,” Mickelson said. “I’ve worked hard. I feel like my body and my game are in good shape to play and compete at the highest level but I want to see how it goes. I want to be honest with myself and after two third-place finishes earlier this year I haven’t played the way I feel like I should be playing and I haven’t been getting the results.
“So I want to see if I can do what I think I can do. I have to be fair to myself and honest with myself and see if I’m able to compete at the highest level. I know I feel I can compete and win on the PGA Tour, but I want to see if the results say as much as I think they will.”
The competitive fires continues to burn within, his work ethic has not withered, and he’s as fit and strong as he’s been in decades since losing nearly 40 pounds after a fast and a change in his diet last summer. And his passion for the game hasn’t waned, so he’ll be trying to him bombs somewhere for a long time.
“The game of golf gives me a positive outlet that allows me to focus my non-stop mind. It’s all consuming,” Mickelson said. “And I love how it plays such a positive role in my life. If it wasn’t for my desire to play and compete on the PGA Tour, I wouldn’t be out there working out four to five days a week trying to stay in shape and playing as much golf as I do.
“I’m giving myself a fair chance to compete. If it wasn’t for golf to consume my thoughts at night, thinking about how I want to attack a golf course or what club I might come up with in this situation or that situation to give me an advantage, or what practice session I want to do the next day to get better and so forth, it would be easy for me to consume my thoughts with negative areas.
“So golf has been such a big, positive part of my life that I’m so appreciative that it has done to keep me mentally healthy as well as how it has given me and my family so much throughout my life. And it will continue to do so.”
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