Phil Mickelson

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Phil Mickelson after winning the 2005 PGA Championship.
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Phil Mickelson after winning the 2005 PGA Championship.

Philip Alfred "Phil" Mickelson (born June 16, 1970) (nicknamed "Lefty" for having a left-handed swing, despite being right-handed), is an American professional golfer. He is one of the leading players of his generation, having won two major championships and a total of twenty-seven events on the PGA Tour.

Contents

Career summary

Born in San Diego, California and raised in Arizona (graduating from ASU), Mickelson began playing golf at a very young age. In 1990, Mickelson became the first left-hander to win the U.S. Amateur title. By 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.

Mickelson continued to win many PGA Tour tournaments, winning at 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. However, despite his victories (21 as of 2004), he had yet to win a major championship until his victory at The Masters in '04. Before the victory, he was considered to be the best golfer in the world who had not won a major, often having been accused of "choking" in such events.

His Masters win 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.) Mickelson is also one of only 5 golfers (Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Annika Sörenstam) to have ever shot 59 in competition, and is the only left-hander among them. His 59 came at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Golf Course on November 24, 2004. However, it does not count in the record books because the Grand Slam of Golf does not count as an official event, so there are only 4 golfers to record "official" 59s. In a Monday final round, Mickelson captured his second career major championship with his victory at the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. Mickelson hit a brilliant chip shot (one of his trademark 'Phil Phlop' shots) to within two feet of the cup. Mickelson made his birdie to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve Elkington and Thomas Björn. Mickelson was joined in celebration by his wife and three children; his youngest, Evan, excitedly ran around the green, performing what announcer Jim Nantz described as a victory lap.

PGA Tour career summary table

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

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.

Results in major championships

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

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.

PGA Tour wins

Mickelson's major championships are shown in bold.

Other professional wins

Team appearances

Amateur

Professional

See also

External links

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