Philip Alfred "Phil" Mickelson

Phil Mickelson was born on June 16, 1970 in San Diego, California.

His best season to date was 2004, when he won the US Masters, his first major tournament, and finished in the top 10 in the other three majors.

Prior to his Masters win, Mickelson was considered one of the best golfers without a major win. He celebrated his second major tournament victory at the 2005 PGA Championships at Baltusrol Golf Club.

Green Jacket for the Second Time

At the 2006 US Masters, Mickelson once again won the coveted Green Jacket, making him one of only 16 players to have won what is probably the most important major tournament in golf more than once. He also managed to achieve a so-called back-to-back major victory, as the US Masters then followed the PGA Championship of the previous year.

Mickelson managed another special feature with a back-to-back victory on the PGA Tour regarding the previous week. He previously won the Bell South Classic in Duluth, Georgia, by 13 strokes.

Chasing Tiger Woods

Mickelson achieved one of the greatest successes of his career in May 2007 when he won the Players Championship, considered the fifth major among players, in addition to his three major victories to that point. In 2010, he secured victory at The Masters for the third time.

During the course of that year, Tiger Woods' lead as No. 1 in the world rankings melted to a minimum. Mickelson had the chance to replace Woods at the top in twelve tournaments, but was unable to take advantage of any of them and was instead pushed into third place by Lee Westwood in October 2010.

In World Golf Hall of Fame since 2012

In 2012, Mickelson was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. In 2013, he became the first player ever to win the Scottish Open and the Open Championship the following week.

The following years were not as successful and Mickelson did not win another tournament until the 2018 World Golf Championships in Mexico. In 2019, he made his debut on the Champions Tour and won his very first event. Mickelson also won his second tournament on the Champions Tour.

In 2021, Mickelson managed to win his second PGA Championships on the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island. He managed to beat Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen (both -4) with 6 strokes under par. Mickelson, who was by no means the favorite before the tournament, is the oldest player ever to win a major in golf at the age of 50.

Ryder Cup record player

Mickelson played on every U.S. Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup team from 1994 to 2018. He is the sole U.S. record player in Ryder Cup history. Mickelson enjoys a great popularity with the public, which is due to his spectacular playing style, but also to his likeable personality. With an income of 49.5 million euros in 2008, he was the highest-earning sportsman behind Tiger Woods.

Like his professional colleague Mike Weir, Mickelson is a right-handed golfer who plays left-handed. He is therefore also called a "lefty." His short game is considered outstanding, which earned him the further nickname "Wedge Wizard" - the more recent PGA statistics, however, do not fully reflect this characteristic: His rankings, e.g. in scrambling (pars saved after missed greens) or sand saves (pars saved after bunker shots) are good, but not outstanding.

One of the best putters on the PGA Tour.

"Statistically verifiable," however, Mickelson is one of the best putters on the PGA Tour - for example, he ranked 6th (out of 180) in the "Strokes Gained" statistic during the 2013 season.

It is worth noting that after a rather weak year in 2011 with the putter, he successfully changed the grip the following season (to the "claw grip" - in his case, the left hand does not enclose the grip of the putter, but the outstretched index and middle fingers are placed on the same).

Grip change or not

In 2013, Mickelson returned to the conventional grip while maintaining his success, however, it was observed that he returned to the claw grip within one round at The Barclay's. When putting, he shows one of the few visually striking peculiarities of his otherwise quite scholastic game: after addressing the ball, he "tilts" the club in the direction of the stroke immediately before the backswing.

His game with the driver is rather weak: Despite a rather mediocre length of his drives (292.4 yards on average - thus ranking 70th) he hit only 58.01% of the fairways in 2014, which is rank 140 on the PGA Tour.

[Sources: https://philmickelson.com/ & Wikipedia]

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