Phil Mickelson: As he approaches 50, have we seen the last of Lefty?

As he approaches 50, there is a big question surrounding the career of Phil Mickelson. Does he have what it takes to remain competitive on the PGA Tour?

The list of players to win events on the PGA Tour once they turn 50 is a fairly short one. Sam Snead holds the record at 52 years, 10 months, and eight days old. The “youngest” is Craig Stadler, who rounds out the group of seven to accomplish the feat at the ripe age of 50 years, one month, and 18 days for the loveable walrus. As golf in 2020 looks to get underway again, Phil Mickelson will be looking to join the group.

It’s not going to be easy. First off, think about how long golf has been around. The fact that there have only been seven players throughout the history of men’s golf to record a win in their 50’s should show how difficult it is to obtain that elusive victory.

It looks like golf is going to come back around June 11th. This means that Phil has one more chance to get a win before turning 50, which he will do on June 16th.

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Personally, I’m not all that confident that Lefty is going to be able to do it. He has done his best to stay in shape, trying to hit “bombs” and stay up with the younger generation. Whether or not it has been helping his game is a different question entirely.

He was 19th in distance last season, but he was 185th in accuracy. The lack of accuracy actually made him quite poor off of the tee, as he ranked 165th in SG in that category, losing 0.307 strokes per round.

It seems like it translated reasonably well to his play also. He only made the cut in 12 of 20 events, and even worse, only finished in the top 25 in four of them.

He did manage to win the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, although that is now 14 months ago. After that, he finished in the top 35 in just one of 16 events. If you add in what he has played so far in the 2019-20 season, he has missed cuts in five of nine, with a 3rd, 28th, 31st, and 61st place finish in the events where he made it to the weekend.

I don’t think he is going to be able to do it, and the only reasonable place seems to be Pebble Beach. That is where he earned his 3rd place finish at this season and is a place he is quite comfortable at where the results fall in line.

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For Phil to find that elusive win to get into the 50-year-old winners club, not only are things going to have to fall his way, they are likely going to need to do so at one of the few courses, like Pebble, that he is still able to perform well at.

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