PHOENIX — Phil Mickelson appearing in Arizona isn’t a big deal, of course. He played golf at Arizona State, lived here for another dozen years early in his career and played in the Phoenix Open a record 30 times.
But appearing and playing at Phoenix Country Club? Mickelson hadn’t played there since the late 1980s and early 90s, when ASU’s team would come over once a month so.
Thirty years or later, that’s about to change. Mickelson is back as part of the field for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, a stop on the PGA Tour Champions.
Mickelson is 51, which confirms the quote from noted philosopher Ferris Bueller: “Life moves pretty fast.”
For at least another year, Mickelson occupies an odd space in professional golf.
At 51, Mickelson can still win on the PGA Tour, but it requires the bottling of lightning, which he did last May in winning the PGA Championship.
At 51, he’s the favorite to win every Champions tour event he enters. He’s entered five tournaments and won three of them.
Winning is fun and the pay is good: Mickelson made almost $1.1 million in those five appearances.
The most adorable @TheSunDevils fan got to meet Phil. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/r2ATNeYpZR
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) November 11, 2021
But the atmosphere and the golf are enjoyable, too. The tournaments are 54 holes, not 72 like the regular tour (the Schwab Cup this week will be 72 holes). The courses are shorter, around 7,000 yards or so (6,853 this week), and more forgiving. Mickelson can out-drive almost everyone else on the Champions Tour, and his short game is still deadly.
Thus, the winning.
Mickelson also is around his people on the Champions tour. A rain delay on the regular tour leads to introductions to new people. A delay on the Champions leads to old stories being told in the locker room.
“I know everybody,” he said. “I go in the locker room and it’s ‘Oh, hey. Great to see you again.’ On the regular tour, there are a lot of guys, I just don’t know who they are because they are so young. They’re talented. They got a lot of game. I just haven’t had a chance to spend time with them.
“Coming out here, seeing so many familiar faces, guys I grew up watching play as a kid and competed against for so many years on the PGA Tour makes it really fun.”
Take, for instance, Ernie Els, who preceded Mickelson in the media availability on Wednesday. Els, 52, said he and Mickelson played against each other for the first time in their early teens.
The Champions tour, Els said, is “in good shape, but a guy like Phil to play full-time would be an unbelievable boost. He attracts a lot of attention wherever he goes. He’s such a draw card. He’ll be an absolute asset to the tour. He’ll be the biggest name out here.”
That won’t happen in 2022. Mickelson enjoys competing against the young and the old, and he plans to bounce between the two tours next year.
Mickelson has not put together his schedule for next year but said “there’s a good chance” he will play in the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, Feb. 10-13. “There’s nothing conflicting. I love coming back here and playing.”
Winning the PGA invigorated Mickelson and germinated hope that another victory or two, perhaps a seventh major, was possible.
After this week, Mickelson plans to put himself through another rigorous fitness schedule to “get the speed back up. It seems as the year goes on, the speed slowly, slowly declines,” he said.
He appears in great shape now, and not just in comparison to his older competitors. But competing on the regular tour requires a different level of conditioning.
“I have to really work hard, now at 51, to try and keep my speed up on the regular tour,” he said. “It’s not easy. Those guys can hit the ball a long ways. Those guys are great players, but when I get a moment like I had in May, it makes it all worthwhile. So I’m going to keep striving to have a few more of those moments.”
Mickelson had a lot of those moments as a senior at ASU and beyond. Now a different kind of senior, he’s hoping for another big moment or two on the regular tour, knowing success awaits him whenever he ages out of it.
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