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Phil Mickelson

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Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970) (nicknamed "Lefty" for having a left-handed swing), is an American professional golfer. He is one of the leading players of his generation, having won three major championships and a total of 29 events on the PGA Tour. He reached a career high world ranking of 2nd in multiple years. However, he had a disastrous finish to the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, scoring a double bogey on the final hole to hand the victory to Geoff Ogilvy. This collapse clearly affected Mickelson's performance for the rest of 2006. After running off a career-best string of three straight major championships where he finished first or second, Mickelson has not finished in the top 15 in any PGA Tour events since.

Phil Mickelson
File:Phil Mickelson One Magical Sunday 2005.jpg
Personal information
Height6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Weight200 lb (91 kg)
Sporting nationality United States
ResidenceRancho Santa Fe, California
Career
CollegeArizona State University
Highest ranking2 (February 11, 2001)[1]

Career summary

Phil Mickelson was born in San Diego, California and raised in Arizona and San Diego. Mickelson swings a golf club left-handed, but writes right-handed. He graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1988, then attended Arizona State on a golf scholarship, from which he graduated in 1992. While at ASU, he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. In 1990, he became the first left-hander to win the U.S. Amateur title. In 1991, he had won his first PGA Tour tournament at the Northern Telecom Open as an amateur, becoming the first to do so since Scott Verplank at the 1985 Western Open in Chicago.

Mickelson continued to win many PGA Tour tournaments, including the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and the World Series of Golf in 1996, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1998, the Colonial in 2000 and the Greater Hartford Open in 2001 and again in 2002. Mickelson also shot a round of 59 at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Golf Course on November 24, 2004. Mickelson was known for his powerful full swing but even more so for his superlative short game, most of all his daring "Phil flop" shot in which a big swing with a high-lofted wedge against a tight lie flies a ball high into the air for a short distance.

Despite these accomplishments, for many years Mickelson was often described as the "best golfer never to win a major." Mickelson often played well in majors: in the five-year span between 1999 and 2003 he had six second-place or third-place finishes. But victory always eluded him, for reasons that were ascribed to taking too many risky shots, missing too many short putts, or a general lack of what it takes to close out a big tournament. Undaunted, Mickelson continued to refine his game and his course strategy and psychology.

His first major championship win came at the 2004 Masters, where he won with a 20-foot final hole birdie putt, defeating Ernie Els in a Sunday back-nine duel in which the stars traded birdies and eagles back and forth. In addition to getting the "majors monkey" off his back, this made him only the third golfer with a left-handed swing to win a major, the others being New Zealander Sir Bob Charles who won the British Open in 1963 and Canadian Mike Weir who won The Masters in 2003. (Like Mickelson, Weir is a right-hander who plays left-handed.)

The following year, in a Monday final round, Mickelson captured his second career major championship with his victory at the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. On the 18th hole, Mickelson hit one of his trademark soft pitches from deep greenside rough to within a foot and a half of the cup, and then made his birdie to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjørn. Mickelson captured his third major championship the following spring by winning the 2006 Masters. He won his second Green Jacket after shooting a 3 under par final round, winning by 2 strokes over his nearest rival Tim Clark. This win propelled him to 2nd place in the Official World Golf Rankings (his career best), behind Tiger Woods and ahead of Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen.

At the 2006 U.S. Open (golf) at Winged Foot, Phil finished second to Geoff Ogilvy after one of the most memorable last hole collapses in major championship golf, perhaps only second to Jean Van De Velde's collapse at the British Open at Carnoustie in 1999. Phil hit a driver far left after attempting to hit a "baby slice" and decided to go for the green with his second shot rather than pitch out into the fairway. Unfortunately his ball hit a tree, with the following shot plugging into the greenside bunker. Phil was unable to get up and down, leading to his only double bogey of the tournament on the 72nd hole, and costing him the championship. Ironically, what people will likely forget is Ogilvy's miraculous chip in on 17 for par to put him into position to win as well as Colin Montgomerie's miraculous putt on 17 for birdie and equally disastrous 2nd shot on 18 which led to a double bogey.

Reflecting on his performance afterwards Phil admitted: "I still am in shock that I did that. I just can't believe I did that. I'm such an idiot". [1]

Demonstrating grace after even the toughest defeats, showing appreciation to legions of his fans and always honoring the traditions and history of the game has made Phil one of the most popular players ever to play on the Tour. During the third round of the 2006 Ford Championship at Doral, Mickelson gave $200 to a spectator after his tee shot went wayward at the par-5 10th, and broke the man's watch. [2]

His popularity among his fellow golfers is lower, however, to the point that he ranked number eight on a 2006 GQ Magazine list of the Ten Most Hated Athletes.[3] Colleagues on the Tour refer to Mickelson as "FIGJAM", which stands for "Fuck I'm Good--Just Ask Me".[4] In his book A Good Walk Spoiled, noted author John Feinstein compared Mickelson's personality to Eddie Haskell on the classic TV series Leave It to Beaver, in that he may have a kind exterior but in reality he is egotistical and rather mean. However, in his defense Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly has pointed out that "the entire family is like that...when I met his sister, (noted golf columnist) Tina Mickelson, she spoke to me like a kindergarten teacher: very polite and measured."

Major Championships

Wins (3)

Year Championship 54 Holes Winning Score Margin of Victory Runners Up
2004 Masters Tied for Lead -9 (72-69-69-69=279) 1 stroke   Ernie Els
2005 PGA Championship Tied for Lead -4 (67-65-72-72=276) 1 stroke   Thomas Bjørn,   Steve Elkington
2006 Masters (2) 1 shot lead -7 (70-72-70-69=281) 2 strokes   Tim Clark

Results timeline

Tournament 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
The Masters DNP T46 LA DNP T34 DNP T7 3 CUT T12 T6
U.S. Open T29 LA T55 LA CUT DNP T47 T4 T94 T43 T10 2
British Open DNP T73 DNP DNP CUT T40 T41 T24 79 CUT
PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP T6 3 CUT T8 T29 T34 T57
Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
The Masters T7 3 3 3 1 10 1
U.S. Open T16 T7 2 T55 2 T33 T2
British Open T11 T30 T66 T59 3 T60 T22
PGA Championship T9 2 T34 T23 T6 1 T16

LA = Low Amateur
DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

PGA Tour wins (29)

Major championships are shown in bold.

Other professional wins (4)

PGA Tour career summary

Year Majors Other wins PGA TOUR wins Earnings ($) Rank
1991 0 1 1 see note N/A
1992 0 0 0 171,714 90
1993 0 2 2 628,735 22
1994 0 1 1 748,316 15
1995 0 1 1 655,777 28
1996 0 4 4 1,697,799 2
1997 0 2 2 1,225,390 11
1998 0 2 2 1,837,246 6
1999 0 0 0 1,722,681 14
2000 0 4 4 4,746,457 2
2001 0 2 2 4,403,833 2
2002 0 2 2 4,311,971 2
2003 0 0 0 1,623,137 38
2004 1 1 2 5,784,823 3
2005 1 3 4 5,699,605 3
2006 1 1 2 4,217,005 3
Total* 3 26 29 39,474,558 3

* As of 20 August 2006.

Note:Mickelson won as an amateur in 1991 and therefore did not receive any prize money.

Being a very popular golfer as well as a successful one, Mickelson is able to earn far more from endorsements than he does in prize money. In 2004, Forbes estimated his annual income at $20 million.

Team appearances

Amateur

Professional

See also

  1. ^ "Week 06 2001 Ending 11 Feb 2001" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
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