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Wikipedia
Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970) is an American professional golfer. He has won four major championships and a total of 38 events on the PGA Tour. He has reached a career high world ranking of 2nd in multiple years. He is nicknamed "Lefty" for his left-handed swing, even though he is otherwise right-handed. According to estimates by Fortune Magazine, Mickelson's income for 2007 was over $51 million, with $47 million coming from endorsements.
Early years
Mickelson was born in San Diego, California, to parents Phil Mickelson Sr. and Mary Mickelson. He was raised there and in Arizona. Although right-handed otherwise, he swings with his left hand, as he learned by watching his right-handed father swing and mirroring it.[1] Mickelson began golf under his father's instruction before starting school. He graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1988.
[edit]College golf
Mickelson then attended Arizona State University on a golf scholarship; he graduated in 1992. During his time at Arizona State, he became the face of amateur golf in the United States, capturing three NCAA individual championships and three Haskins Awards (1990, 1991, 1992) as the outstanding collegiate golfer. He was the second collegiate golfer to earn first-team All-American honors all four years. In addition, in 1990, he became the first left-hander to win the U.S. Amateur title. Perhaps his greatest achievement, though, came in 1991 when he won his first PGA Tour event, the Northern Telecom Open. He did so as an amateur, becoming only the sixth player in PGA history to accomplish this feat, and the first since Scott Verplank, who won the 1985 Western Open.
[edit]PGA Tour pro
[edit]Early professional career
Mickelson turned pro in 1992 following his graduation. He was able to bypass the Tour's qualifying process (Q-School) because of his 1991 Tucson win, which earned him a two-year exemption. He continued to win many PGA Tour tournaments, including 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 National Invitation in 2000 and the Greater Hartford Open in 2001 and again in 2002. He also won the Buick Invitational in 2000, defeating Tiger Woods and ending his streak of consecutive tournament victories at six. After his win, Mickelson said, "I didn't want to be the bad guy. I wasn't trying to end the streak per se. I was just trying to win the golf tournament."[2]
Mickelson has been capable of scoring very low for many seasons. He scored a career-low 59 for 18 holes, at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Golf Course in Hawaii, on November 24, 2004.
Mickelson's game has been characterized by his powerful but often not accurate full swing, but even more so for his excellent short game, most of all his daring "Phil flop" shot in which a big swing with a high-lofted wedge against a tight lie flies a ball high into the air for a short distance. His putting has been usually excellent since turning pro.
Despite these accomplishments, for many years Mickelson was often described as the "best golfer never to win a major".[3] Mickelson often played well in majors: in the five-year span between 1999 and 2003, he had six second-place or third-place finishes. Mickelson holds the record for the most second-place finishes in U.S. Open history with five.
Since early 1993, Mickelson's caddy has been Jim "Bones" Mackay.[4] Mickelson has a lifetime exemption on the PGA Tour, for being a tour member for over 15 years and having 20 plus tour victories. Mickelson has spent over 650 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings and has been ranked in the final top 10 every year since 1996. Despite his success, Mickelson has never held the World #1 ranking at any time in his career.[5][6]
[edit]2004–06: First three major wins
Mickelson's first major championship win came at the 2004 Masters, where he won with an 18-foot final hole birdie putt, defeating Ernie Els in a Sunday back-nine duel in which the two traded birdies and eagles back and forth. In addition to getting the "majors monkey" off his back, this 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 theBritish Open in 1963 and Canadian Mike Weir who won The Masters in 2003. (Like Mickelson, Weir is a right-hander who plays left-handed.)
Just prior to the 2004 Ryder Cup, Mickelson was dropped from his long-standing contract with Titleist/Acushnet Golf, when he took heat for a voicemail message he left for a Callaway Golf executive. In it, he praised their driver and golf ball and thanked them for their help in getting some equipment for his brother. This memo was played to all of their salesmen, and eventually found its way back to Titleist. He was then let out of his multi-year deal with Titleist 16 months early, and signed on with Callaway Golf, his current equipment sponsor. He endured a great deal of ridicule and scrutiny from the press and fellow Ryder Cup members for his equipment change so close to the Ryder Cup matches. He faltered at the 2004 Ryder Cup, going 1-3-0, but refused to blame the sudden change in equipment or his practice methods for his performance.[7]
The following year, in a Monday final round conclusion forced by weather, Mickelson captured his second career major championship with his victory at the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. On the 18th hole, Mickelson hit one of his trademark soft pitches from deep greenside rough to within a foot and a half of the cup, and then made his birdie to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve Elkingtonand Thomas Bjørn.
Mickelson captured his third major championship the following spring by winning the 2006 Masters. Mickelson won his second Green Jacket after shooting a 3-under-par final round, winning by two strokes over his nearest rival Tim Clark. This win propelled him to 2nd place in theOfficial World Golf Rankings (his career best), behind Tiger Woods and ahead of Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen.
[edit]Winged Foot
At the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Mickelson was part of a wild finish, in which he ended up in a tie for second place at +6 (286), one shot behind champion Geoff Ogilvy. On the 71st hole, Mickelson, with the lead at +3, missed the fairway to the left, and his drive finished inside a garbage can, from which he was granted a free drop; he parred the hole, but his bogey on the previous hole reduced his lead to one shot heading to the final hole. Needing a par for a one-shot victory, he chose to hit driver on the final hole of the tournament, and hit it well left of the fairway (he had only hit two of thirteen fairways previously in the round). The ball bounced off a corporate hospitality tent and settled in an area of trampled-down grass that was enclosed with trees. He decided to go for the green with his second shot, rather than play it safe and pitch out into the fairway. His ball then hit a tree, and did not advance more than 50 yards. His next shot plugged into the left greenside bunker. He was unable to get up and down from there, resulting in a double bogey, and costing him a chance of winning the championship outright or getting into a playoff, and also ending his bid to join Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as the only players to win three consecutive professional majors (he had won two in a row heading into Winged Foot).
[edit]2006–08
During the third round of the 2006 Ford Championship at Doral, Mickelson gave $200 to a spectator after his wayward tee shot at the par-5 10th broke the man's watch.[8]
Mickelson has also shown other signs of appreciation. In 2007, after hearing the story of retired NFL player Conrad Dobler and his family on ESPN explaining their struggles to pay medical bills, Mickelson volunteered to pay tuition for Holli Dobler, Conrad Dobler's daughter, at Miami Universityin Ohio.[9]
Frustrated with his driving accuracy, Mickelson made the decision in April 2007 to leave longtime swing coach Rick Smith. He currently works with Butch Harmon, a former coach of Tiger Woods. On May 13, 2007, Mickelson came from a stroke back on the final round to shoot a three-under 69 to win The Players Championship with an 11-under-par 277. This Mother's Day win was his first without his wife and children present.
In the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont, after shooting 11 over par after 2 rounds, Mickelson missed the cut (by a stroke) for the first time in 31 majors, since the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie. He had been hampered by a wrist injury that was incurred while practicing in the thick rough at Oakmont a few weeks before the tournament.
On September 3, 2007, Mickelson won the Deutsche Bank Championship which is the secondFedEx Cup playoff event. On the final day, he was paired with Tiger Woods, who ended up finishing two strokes behind Mickelson in a tie for second. It was the first time Mickelson was able to best Woods while paired together on the final day of a tournament. The next day Mickelson announced that he would not be competing in the third FedEx Cup playoff event. The day before his withdrawal, Mickelson said during a television interview that PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem had not responded to advice he had given him on undisclosed issues.[10]
In a Men's Vogue article, Mickelson recounted his effort to lose 20 pounds with the help of trainer Sean Cochran. "Once the younger players started to come on tour, he realized that he had to start working out to maintain longevity in his career," Cochran said.[11] Mickelson's regimen consisted of increasing flexibility and power, eating five smaller meals a day, aerobic training, and carrying his own golf bag.[12]
Mickelson was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.[13]
[edit]2009
Mickelson won for the first time in 2009 by defending his title at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club. He finished one stroke ahead of Steve Stricker. It was Mickelson's 35th win on tour; he surpassed Vijay Singh for second place on the current PGA Tour wins list. A month later, he won his 36th title on the tour, and his first World Golf Championship, at the 2009 WGC-CA Championship with a one- stroke win over Nick Watney.
On May 20, 2009, it was announced that Mickelson's wife, Amy, was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Mickelson announced he would suspend his PGA Tour schedule indefinitely. His management company said that Amy Mickelson would begin treatment with major surgery as early as the following two weeks. Mickelson was scheduled to play the HP Byron Nelson Championship May 21–24, and to defend his title May 28–31 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, but withdrew from both events.[14] During the final round of the 2009 BMW PGA Championship, fellow golfer and family friend John Daly wore bright pink trousers in support of Mickelson's wife.[15] Also, the next Saturday, at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, a "Pink Out" event was hosted, and the PGA Tour players all wore pink that day, to support the Mickelson family. On May 31, Mickelson announced that he would return to play on the PGA Tour in June at the St. Jude Classic and theU.S. Open, since he had heard from the doctors treating his wife that her cancer had been detected in an early stage.[16]
Mickelson shot a final round 70 at the 2009 U.S. Open and recorded his fifth runner-up finish at the U.S. Open, a record. He shared the lead after an eagle at the 13th hole, but fell back with bogeys on 15 and 17; Lucas Glover captured the championship.
On July 6, 2009 it was announced that his mother, Mary Mickelson, was diagnosed with breast cancer and would have surgery at the same hospital where his wife was treated.[17] After hearing the news of his mother now being diagnosed with breast cancer, Mickelson took another leave of absence from the Tour, missing The Open Championship. On July 28, Mickelson announced he would return to the PGA Tour in August at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the week before the PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota.
In September, Mickelson won The Tour Championship for the second time in his career. He entered the final round four strokes off the lead, but shot a final round 65 to win the event by three strokes over Tiger Woods.[18] With the win, Mickelson finished the season second behind Woods in the 2009 FedEx Cup standings.[19]
On November 8, 2009, Mickelson won the WGC-HSBC Champions by one shot over Ernie Els in Shanghai.[20]
[edit]2010: Third Masters win
On April 11, 2010, Mickelson won the 2010 Masters Tournament with a 16-under-par performance, giving him a three-stroke win over Lee Westwood in Augusta, Georgia. The win marked the third Masters victory for Mickelson and his fourth major championship overall.[21] Critical to Mickelson's win was a dramatic run in the third round on Saturday in which Mickelson, trailing leader Westwood by five strokes as he prepared his approach shot to the 13th green, proceeded to make eagle, then to hole-out for eagle from 141 yards at the next hole, the par 4 14th, then on the next, the par 5 15th, to miss eagle from 81 yards by mere inches. After tapping in for birdie at 15, Mickelson, at -12, led Westwood, at -11, who had bogeyed hole 12 and failed to capitalize on the par 5 13th, settling for par.
Westwood did recapture the one-stroke lead by round's end, but the momentum carried forward for Mickelson into round 4, where he posted a bogey-free 67 to Westwood's 71, and no other pursuer was able to keep pace to the end, though K.J. Choi and Anthony Kim made notable charges. For good measure, Mickelson birdied the final hole and memorably greeted his waiting wife, Amy, with a prolonged hug and kiss.[22]
For many fans, this finish to the tournament was especially poignant, given Amy's suffering from breast cancer for the preceding year; Mary Mickelson, Phil's mother, was also dealing with cancer. CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz's call of the final birdie putt, "That's a win for the family," was seen by many as capturing the moment well.[23][24]
Thanks to the dramatic return of Tiger Woods to competitive play after a scandal-ridden 20-week absence, to his close contention throughout for the lead (he finished tied with Choi for 4th at -11), and to Mickelson and others' memorably exciting play over the weekend, the 2010 Masters showed strong television ratings in the United States, ranking third all-time to Woods's historic wins in 1997 and 2001.[25]Mickelson's win left him second only to Woods in major championships among his competitive contemporaries, moving him ahead of Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Pádraig Harrington, with three major championships each and each, like Mickelson, with dozens of worldwide wins.
Mickelson, who was one of the favorites for the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, shot 74 and 66 on Thursday and Friday to sit a shot off the lead. However, two weekend scores of 73 gave him a T4 finish. During the rest of the 2010 season, Mickelson had multiple opportunities to become the number one player in the Official World Golf Rankings following the travails of TIger Woods. However, a string of disappointing finishes by Mickelson saw the number one spot eventually go to Englishman Lee Westwood.
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