Phil Mickelson had just turned 35 years old when he arrived at the interview tent just beyond the putting green at Treetops Resort in Gaylord, Michigan.
He was there for the annual Par-3 Shootout in 2005, but he arrived for his interview early and alone, well ahead of his three playing partners. Mickelson took a seat and a couple swigs of water as a small group of reporters awkwardly stared at him, unsure of what to do. Start the post-round interview? Engage in small talk? Someone finally broke the ice and Mickelson began opining on all golf matters large and small.
Then someone asked about his future. He had just won his first major the year before but he had already been on the PGA Tour for 14 years and was approaching 40. How much longer could he see himself playing?
Mickelson said something that instantly saddened me. He didn’t envisioned himself playing a full-time schedule after he turned 40. He had a young family and planned to spend more time at home.
I fully understood and respected his decision. The life of a tour pro is a grueling one. But I felt like something was being taken away from me and other golf fans just as Mickelson seemed to be entering his prime.
As I watched Mickelson win the PGA Championship on Sunday and become the oldest major champion at 50 years, 11 months, I was happy for him and for the sport of golf and its fans. He had found a way to keep playing and balance his personal life.
Yet I was also sad again.
How long will this last? How long are we going to get to see these special moments from Mickelson? Or from Tiger Woods, who won the Masters at 43 in 2019 but was in a serious car accident this year at age 45?
Mickelson was hopeful and encouraged by the extra work he put in physically and mentally that allowed him to still compete at the highest level less than a month from his 51st birthday. But he also knows he can’t truthfully speak of unbridled, limitless future success at his age.
“So it's very possible that this is the last tournament I ever win. Like if I'm being realistic,” he told reporters at Kiawah Island, South Carolina. “But it's also very possible that I may have had a little bit of a breakthrough in some of my focus and maybe I go on a little bit of a run, I don't know.”
I’m approaching the big 5-0 myself and I know exactly what Mickelson’s talking about. I feel like I can still do all the things I used to do in my early 40s or even my 30s. I often feel smarter, wiser and patient in my life. But physically, it's another story. When I play a sport, I get hurt more easily and I take longer to recover. It’s nothing more than contending with the aging process and Father Time’s undefeated record.
I align myself with Phil and Tiger because I’m close their age and I became a golf fan around the time they began their careers. Actually, they’re the ones who made me a hardcore golf fan.
I was too young for the heydays of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros. Nick Faldo and Greg Norman never did it for me. There was the modern Big Four rivalry of Tiger, Phil, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els for a while. But that rivalry was really about Phil and Tiger at its core because they were and still are the most captivating players in golf.
I think most of us who saw Phil outduel Brooks Koepka during Sunday’s final round were watching for two reasons. We were watching to see if Phil could make history while we wondered if he could keep himself from doing something unnecessarily stupid to ruin his chances. No one can forget his Winged Foot flop in 2006.
Shortly after Phil won the 2004 Masters, he played at the Par-3 Shootout with Lee Trevino, who admitted his fascination with Phil.
“I love him,” Trevino said. “Not too many people get me to watch golf on TV. I was glued to the television for Augusta.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if Trevino was glued to his TV again Sunday.
But who else captures our interest in golf that way? For a while, we thought it might be Sergio Garcia. Then maybe Bubba Watson. Koepka and Rory McIlroy are great players with four majors apiece. Bryson DeChambeau is probably the most interesting young player, though he’s also polarizing and has only one major. I’ve enjoyed watching all of these golfers, but none has come close to moving the needle the way Tiger and Phil do.
And that’s what sad about Phil’s win. There are no heirs apparent to his or Tiger’s spellbinding excellence. Tiger’s famous intensity and miracle shots certainly need no cataloging.
But Phil’s win Sunday was among his most epic. He delivered 1,439 thumbs up by his count, gave the ball he used to hole out from a bunker on the fifth hole to a fan in a wheelchair, then went on a hilarious tweet storm answering fans while half-drunk on the plane ride home. My favorite was his reply to a fan who admitted hating him but now thinking he’s awesome: “I understand. I’m best taken in small doses.”
LOL, Phil. For real. It brought me so much joy to think of Phil on his private jet thoroughly enjoying the moment as he sipped a $10,000 bottle of wine and thumbed through his phone a little buzzed.
Maybe there will be more of these moments. Maybe Phil can be like Watson and flirt with a major at 59. I do believe he will win another major, probably at the Masters. But however many moments of greatness are left in Phil’s career, we should simply be thankful for them, regardless what size their doses come in.
