Phil Mickelson

Phil Mickelson
File:Phil Mickelson One Magical Sunday 2005.jpg
Personal information
Sporting nationality	American
Residence	Rancho Santa Fe, California
Career
College	Arizona State University
Highest ranking	2 (February 11, 2001)

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 three major championships and a total of twenty-nine events on the PGA Tour.

Career summary

Phil Mickelson was born in San Diego, California and raised in Arizona and San Diego. He began playing golf at a very young age and copied his father's right handed swing while standing facing him, thus acquiring a left-handed swing despite being right-handed. He graduated from San Diego's University HS in 1988, then attended Arizona State on a golf scholarship, from which he graduated in 1992. In 1990, he 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 in Chicago.

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. On the 18th hole, Mickelson hit a chip shot (one of his trademark 'Phil Flop' shots) to within two feet 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 Björn.

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
The Masters	DNP	T46	DNP	T34	DNP	T7	3	CUT	T12	T6
U.S. Open	T29	T55	CUT	DNP	T47	T4	T94	T43	T10	2
British Open	DNP	T73	DNP	DNP	CUT	T40	T40	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
British Open	T11	T30	T66	T59	3	T60
PGA Championship	T9	2	T34	T23	T6	1

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

PGA Tour wins

• 1991 Northern Telecom Open
• 1993 Buick Invitational of California, The International
• 1994 Mercedes Championships
• 1995 Northern Telecom Open
• 1996 Nortel Open, Phoenix Open, GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic, NEC World Series of Golf
• 1997 Bay Hill Invitational, Sprint International
• 1998 Mercedes Championships, AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
• 2000 Buick Invitational, BellSouth Classic, MasterCard Colonial, The Tour Championship
• 2001 Buick Invitational, Canon Greater Hartford Open
• 2002 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Canon Greater Hartford Open
• 2004 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, The Masters
• 2005 FBR Open, AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, BellSouth Classic, PGA Championship
• 2006 BellSouth Classic, The Masters

Mickelson's major championships are shown in bold.

Other professional wins

• 1993 Tournoi Perrier Paris (Europe, but it's a Challenge Tour not a European Tour event)
• 2001 Tylenol Par-3 Shootout at Treetops Resort
• 2004 TELUS Skins Game, PGA Grand Slam of Golf

Team appearances

Amateur

• Walker Cup: 1989, 1991
• Eisenhower Trophy: 1990

Professional

• Presidents Cup: 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005
• Ryder Cup: 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004
• Dunhill Cup: 1996

See also

• Golfers with most PGA Tour wins

External links

• Phil Mickelson's official web site
• Profile on the PGA Tour's official site
• Phil Mickelson at Golf Stars Online Annotated links to feature articles, interviews, his career records and similar.
• Phil Mickelson on About.com Profile and stats
• Results for the last two years from the Official World Golf Rankings site