This week Phil Mickelson completed the remarkable achievement of staying inside the world’s top 50 for 25 years. Join us to celebrate the 48-year-old’s efforts and, we promise, there’s not one mention of The Match…
1. “I would sleep with those clubs at night”
Otherwise right-handed he plays left-handed after mirroring his dad’s swing.
He was promised some clubs when he won his first trophy and his first set were some ladies’ left-handed clubs that he spotted at Feathers Creek in Death Valley.
Soon after his dad built a 40‑yard hole in their San Diego back garden.
“I would watch my dad hit balls in the backyard dreaming of being able to stand up so I could hit my first shots. And he gave me a cut‑down club when I finally could walk, and I would hit balls in our backyard over and over for hours on end. I would sleep with those clubs at night, and I would dream about the game of golf.”
2. The amateur sensation
Mickelson remains the last amateur to win on the PGA Tour having captured the 1991 Tucson Open when a 20-year-old student at Arizona State.
He made a triple bogey on the 14th on the Sunday before adding birdies at 16 and 18.
“One of my memorable shots ever was when I hit a 9‑iron to 10 feet on the last hole and made the putt. I was still in college, and to pull that shot off at that time under that situation, was to me one of the greatest shots that I’ve ever hit and one I’ll remember as being that.
“The club is in my garage. I still have it. I’ve saved all my clubs throughout the years.”
Three months later he finished as low amateur at The Masters having won the US Amateur the previous year, the first left-hander to do so.
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3. The trusted sidekick
Steve Loy was on the bag for the Tucson win, since then he has also been his coach, business partner and, for the vast majority of Mickelson’s career, his manager. And he was the man who found Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay who was Mickelson’s caddie for a staggering 25 years.
“In the mid 90s we were playing a tournament in Las Vegas and there was an earthquake at two in the morning. The chandelier was swaying from side to side hitting the ceiling. His room-mate told me the next day that Bones leaped out of bed, grabbed the clubs and ran outside. He didn’t want anything to fall on them and hurt them,” Mickelson said.
“When Amy got diagnosed (with cancer) he and his wife Jen drove overnight to be with us the next day in San Diego. When Amy went through surgery, they were there through it all.”
Quick 9 continues on the next page, where Mickelson explains his “sick humour”…
4. His penchant for a prank
The one that keeps coming up is when Mickelson told the police that Bones had hit a fan in the car park and that it was a hit and run at the US Open. What had actually happened was that the spectator had walked into the car, was unharmed and continued on their way.
“I kind of got this idea, I went to the police officers to help us out. And they went and cuffed him on the range and pulled him aside for questioning 15 minutes before our tee time. And it was entertaining for me to watch him try to explain how he needs to go caddie and that they didn’t care, this is felony hit and run. That’s, I guess, my own little sick humour.”
5. “I’m such an idiot”
Ah, the US Open. For all the five major wins – three Masters, one PGA, one Open – at the start of any season it will be a question of where’s the US Open and how will that suit Phil the Thrill?
Next year we’re at Pebble Beach, scene of four of Mickelson’s 43 PGA Tour victories and where he shot 64 to win there in 2012 alongside Tiger. This was the fifth straight occasion that he had got the better of him when being paired together.
For the record he’s played in 27 of them, more than any other major, made the cut in all bar three, had 10 top 10s and just the six second places.
The biggest stinker came at Winged Foot in 2006 when a par at 18 would have got the job done, a bogey a play-off with Geoff Ogilvy. What most of us forget was that he was going for a third straight major.
Having hit just two of 13 fairways all day he found a hospitality tent, went for the green, hit a tree, got plugged in a bunker and made six. Minutes earlier Monty had made the same number from the middle of the fairway.
“I just can’t believe I did that. I’m such an idiot.”
6. The Shinnecock implosion
Which brings us neatly to Shinnecock Hills and this year when maybe all those runners-up finishes finally hit home and, in a moment of madness, hit a moving ball, a ball that was rolling off the green on the Saturday.
The explanation, that he was simply taking advantage of the rules, was maybe even odder.
“I don’t mean it disrespectful; if you’re taking it that way, that’s not on me,” Mickelson said immediately after the round. “I’m sorry that you’re taking it that way, it’s certainly not meant that way. Sometimes in these situations, it’s just easier to take the two shots and move on.”
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It took him a few days to finally apologise and, for many, it will be the strangest thing any of us have ever seen in a professional tournament.
“My anger and frustration got the best of me last weekend. I’m embarrassed and disappointed by my actions. It was clearly not my finest moment and I’m sorry.”
For the record Brooks Koepka defended his title but the championship will always be best (or worst) remembered for Mickelson’s actions.
Quick 9 continues on the next page, where Mickelson made an unexpected decision…
7. Twenty four and count… no, that’s probably it
Since 1994 and the very first Presidents Cup he hasn’t missed a single match in either this or the Ryder Cup.
His Presidents Cup record reads P12 W10 L1 H1. His Ryder Cup record reads P12 W3 L9 H0.
One of his most telling contributions to the latter was the way he got stuck into captain Tom Watson at Gleneagles, the following month he was part of an 11-strong taskforce which appeared to have reinvigorated American fortunes.
And then Paris happened and his likely final shot was a wet mid-iron and a handshake with Frankie Molinari while still on the tee.
Expect him to be named captain in the coming years.
8. Call social services
After years of avoiding Twitter Mickelson signed up on August 22 and, in the short space of just 130 Tweets, he has provided something for everyone.
If you’ve somehow missed out just have a look for yourself. Make yourself a cup of tea, scroll down to the bottom and enjoy every last drop of golf’s biggest oddball, Philip Alfred Mickelson.
When shirt company Mizzen+Main signed him up they could have had no idea of the extent of their new star’s dance moves. If you do just one thing today then have another watch of The Dance.
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9. He’ll always have Muirfield
Winning The Open was never on the cards for Mickelson – the ball flight, the over-aggressive outlook, the temperament, a host of missed cuts and poor finishes, very little pointed to his victory at Muirfield in 2013.
Like his first Masters victory he finished brilliantly, with four birdies in his last six holes, to ensure he’ll be part of the championship until 2030.
“I played arguably the best round of my career and shot the round of my life. The range of emotions I feel are as far apart as possible after losing the US Open.”
Three years later at Troon he came within a whisker of the first 62 in a major and then enjoyed an incredible head-to-head with Henrik Stenson. In the end he finished three shots back but 11 clear of JB Holmes in third.
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