Phil Mickelson is out of the top 50; what's next for Lefty?

For the first time in 26 years, Phil Mickelson has dropped out of the top 50 rankings.

Imagine (if you can). The setting is in November 1993. A young left-handed golfer finishes second at the Casio World Open, playing well enough to get into the top 50. Before that tournament was the last time that Phil Mickelson wasn’t in the top 50 in the OWGR rankings.

After a recent stretch of poor play, one of which hasn’t seen a win since the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. He only has two wins in the last six+ PGA Tour seasons, the other coming with a win at the WGC-Mexico Championships. Lefty hasn’t finished in the top 25 since a T-18th at the Masters. Even worse is taking a look at the next 12 events that he played in.

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He played a little better over the last two weeks, finishing T-31st and T-28th. It still wasn’t enough, as Phil dropped down to 51st.

There is a fact about Phil’s run in the top 50 that is even more impressive to me than the fact that he was ranked in the top 50 in the world for 1,353 straight weeks. It’s that he has never been ranked number one in the world.

Some guy named Tiger has a lot to do with that. Still, one would think with how well the career of Phil Mickelson has gone, that he would have found his way to number one at some point in his career.

At 49, Phil has been going the opposite route of most golfers his age. They focus more on the short game and excelling out of the fairway and around the greens. Phil has been focused on something else entirely.

“Hitting Bombs”

Phil was 19th on Tour last year in distance off the tee at 306.3 yards. The accuracy was the opposite, ranking 185th, barely hitting half the fairways at 50.77%. It was six yards more than any of his prior 15 seasons, and you have to go back to 2003 when he averaged 306 yards to see a comparable year.

Mickelson used to be a maestro around the green. Everyone knows about the flop shots.

Pelz is listed at six feet tall online, but looks to be a bit taller than that standing next to Phil, who is 6’3″. Phil had used that short game throughout his career to win tournaments. The length was a part of his game early on, but that was back when people were averaging 275 yards off the tee, not 300.

I don’t know if Phil dove too deep into his Phireside chats, his calve workouts, and the “hitting bombs” mentality, but it seems like he has lost sight of what it was that made him one of the best golfers in the world.

When you look at his four SG categories, Phil was 165th off the tee, 122nd on approach shots, 73rd around the green, and 139th putting. The only positive aspect of his game was around the green, and that was a lowly .094.

Phil is going to be 50 this summer, and swinging that hard and trying to hit the ball that far cannot be healthy for him. I’m 31, and for a few years now I feel it after a weekend of going hard on the course with the driver. Which is why I rarely do it.

If Phil is going to get back into the top 50, he needs to refocus on what is important to his golf game. Hitting fairways, and getting back to a good short game.

Next. Swing and a Miss by CBS Firing Gary McCord and Peter Kostis. dark

Heck, in the top 50 at 50 seems like a pretty good goal for Phil Mickelson.

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Phil Mickelson is Out of the Top 50; What’s Next for Lefty?

By Christopher O'Day | Nov 4, 2019

For the first time in 26 years, Phil Mickelson has dropped out of the top 50 rankings.

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