2021 Charles Schwab Challenge: Top 10 power rankings at Colonial CC

Admittedly, I didn’t think I’d see the day where Phil Mickelson would be back in my power rankings. With Phil, you never truly know what’s next.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Lefty thrilled us with his sixth career major championship last week at the PGA Championship. He led after 36, 54 and 72 holes to get it done at age 50.

Mickelson keeps himself in great shape. That and modern equipment allows him to still hit bombs. He was keeping up just fine off the tee with Brooks Koepka in the final group.

Phil led the field at Kiawah Island in birdies (22) and was first in strokes gained tee to green (12.903 total). He didn’t hit a ton of fairways (no surprise there), but the magician he is found avenues to the green and finished fifth in SG approach (8.016).

It was a truly historic week. It was also hard to see coming as he hadn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2019 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Mickelson’s last top-10 on the PGA Tour came nearly a year ago.

Will it be a one-off miracle or a sign that he’s got a lot more left in the tank? We’re about to find out this week at Colonial. At least at time of writing, he’s still in the field to tee it up at the Charles Schwab Challenge for the 17th time.

He’s a two-time winner in 2000 and 2008 and finished T-2nd in 2001.

“The thing about Colonial is that you can’t overpower Colonial. There are only two par-5s. You’re not going to — there are no given birdie holes,” Mickelson was transcribed by ASAP Sports in 2017. “But you can be rewarded. You can birdie just about every hole if you hit a good shot, so there a lot of reward about well-struck shots here. I think that’s my favorite thing about this course is that very rarely is a well-struck shot penalized.”

The short, narrow layout doesn’t suit Mickelson’s game great. However, the rough is playable and he can utilize his driving irons and woods like he did last week at times.