Mickelson Readies for The Match and 2022 Tournaments
Phil Mickelson has a busy November. He’s working with some new equipment, spending time in the gym and getting ready for his debut as a golf commentator on The Match where he will partner with Charles Barkley to give his opinions of the play of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.
Prepare yourself now for the upcoming weeks which are sure to have more on-air quips as well as videos, stills and tweets about Phil Mickelson’s calves, possibly the only lower legs on the planet that have their own Instagram account which is called, simply, philscalves.
“I’ll start working on my fitness again to get speed back up,” he explained prior to the Charles Schwab Cup on his plans for the next few weeks. “It seems as though as the year goes on, slowly, slowly the speed starts to decline.”
And as we all know, it’s hard to hit Mickelson bombs with low clubhead speed. It’s something he believes has paid benefits. Keeping distance has been important in staying competitive with the younger set.
In the 2021 PGA Tour season, Mickelson played 23 events and only made 9 cuts. But, of course, everything changed when he won the PGA Championship, becoming the oldest golfer to win a major last May, when he was 50.
“But when I get a moment like I had in May, it makes it all worthwhile.” — Phil Mickelson
“I have to really work hard now at 51 to keep my speed up and be competitive on the regular tour,” he said about his quest to stay sharp for as long as possible. “But when I get a moment like I had in May, it makes it all worthwhile, so I’m going to keep striving to having a few more of those moments.”
While Mickelson has not played many PGA Tour Champions events, he has had phenomenal success in the tournaments he entered, winning three of five, with the Schwab Cup being his sixth. He seems torn right now between wanting to play at the highest level and having fun with friends.
“The fun part about playing this tour is I know everybody, I know all the guys,” he noted. “Coming out here and seeing so many familiar faces of guys that I grew up watching play as a kid and competed against for so many years on the PGA Tour makes this really fun.”
He described the Champions circuit as being more social than the regular Tour.
“These are guys we’ve known for decades now, and friendships have been formed, and a lot of moments have been shared,” he added.
In other words, they have history, most of it good.
The PGA Tour is filled with guys who are young enough to be his sons, not that there’s anything wrong with that. It speaks to Mickelson’s longevity and consistent skill level over a 30-year plus career. That kind of durability, persistence and willingness to constantly improve is impressive, or should be, to anyone in any occupation.
Phoenix CC, where the Schwab Cup is being played has been renovated since Mickelson first played it, back when he was in college at ASU.
“The greens are different,” he said about the course. “They were bent when I last played it in college, and there are some new tee boxes, and some of the holes are a little bit longer.”
There are also some parallel fairways on the course which gives him an opportunity to miss a fairway and still have a shot. He said after round one that it allows him to play aggressively, take advantage of his short irons and make birdies.
Mickelson’s schedule is not set for 2022, but he did say that he is playing the American Express because he is the host for that event, and that he may play the Waste Management Phoenix Open because he has so many ties to the area. Because of the American Express, he will not play the Champions Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
Mickelson and Charles Barkley will commentate on The Match between Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Keopka. He has already done some Q&A sessions with them for social media. For the telecast, he’ll be on the course and hopes to be able to draw out their personalities a little bit more. Obviously, an easier task with DeChambeau than Koepka, but they both have their moments. He will also try to find out what they are thinking about shots before and after they hit them.
“I think talking (asking what they were trying to do with a shot) gives great insight into how great players like those two guys think and go throughout a round,” Mickelson added. He also said the needle will likely be out.
However, for now, after this week, he’s looking forward to testing some new equipment, figuring out what he will use next year, getting even more fit, if that’s possible, and perhaps sending out some more tweets and Instagram videos on his training to show us how his celebrity calves are doing. As Mickelson might quip, you have to admit, his calves are stupendous.