Phil Mickelson offers up scorching 'hot take' on Scottie Scheffler

For most PGA Tour players, five top-25 finishes in five starts to open a season would be welcomed, especially when two of those starts are top-10s.

But when you're Scottie Scheffler, who's coming off a nine-win season, a campaign that included a second win at The Masters, a second consecutive win at The Players Championship, an Olympic gold medal, and a FedEx Cup title, top-25s and even top-10s are seen as disappointments.

Truth be told, as it was with Tiger Woods in his glory days, it's become a thing where golf fans and pundits alike are more surprised when Scheffler doesn't win than when he does. That's how good Scottie has been, which is why he's been atop the Official World Golf Ranking for 95 consecutive weeks now.

Have we seen Scheffler's best golf in 2025? No, we haven't. But it's not as if the 28-year-old is missing cuts or finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard. Here's how he's fared in his five starts thus far:

• AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: T9
• WM Phoenix Open: T25
• The Genesis Invitational: T3
• Arnold Palmer Invitational: T11
• The Players Championship: T20

Again, offer those results to just about everyone else ahead of the season, and they'd take them all day long.

We've just come to expect more from Scheffler. And with plenty of golf left to play this season, one would think it's only a matter of time before the world No. 1 notches his first victory of the 2025 campaign.

Well, unless you're Phil Mickelson, that is.

Phil Mickelson says Scottie Scheffler will not win in 2025

While the PGA Tour was holding its flagship event over the weekend with the 51st edition of The Players Championship, which was won by Rory McIlroy, LIV Golf was in Singapore for its fourth event of the season, which was won by Joaquín Niemann.

Niemann now owns four LIV victories, including two this season alone, and also took the PIF Saudi International on the Asian Tour late last year.

Prior to the final round, the official X account of Torque GC, Niemann's team in LIV Golf, opined that the Chilean "has got to be a top 5 player in the world right now."

And once Niemann emerged victorious, Mickelson chimed in with a response, saying, "Top 5? Try #1."

During the four-hour weather delay during the final round of The Players on Sunday afternoon, CBS Sports broadcaster and 2008 Masters champ Trevor Immelman referenced Lefty's post, calling it a "hot take" as he attempted to get a conversation going during the break.

And Mickelson had no problem jumping back in with an extremely bold prediction:

Hot take indeed, Phil.

Naturally, it didn't take long for folks to come at Mickelson, who has yet to win in LIV Golf, although he did finally earn his first top-3 finish last week in Hong Kong and tied for 19th in Singapore.

With 45 PGA Tour victories and six major championship titles to his name, Mickelson has certainly earned the right to state his opinion on golf-related matters. But that's as bold as bold gets at this point in time.