Kiawah Island, S.C. – Phil Mickelson claimed a victory in the final round of the PGA Championship.
The San Diego native Mickelson finished with a score of 73, one over par for the day but six under par for the tournament. He finished two strokes better than the runner ups Louis Oosthuizen and Brooks Koepka.
With the victory, Mickelson became the oldest player to ever win a major tournament on the PGA tour.
At age 50, Mickelson broke the previous record set in 1968 when then 48-year old Julius Boros won the PGA Championship.
He also became the first player to win a major in four different decades; the 90’s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.
The four majors are the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. Major wins are considered to be the most significant accomplishment a professional golfer can achieve.
This was Mickelson’s second victory at the PGA Championship, and sixth overall major win.
The only major tournament that has eluded Mickelson in his career is the U.S. Open. If he gets a win at the U.S Open, he will be just the sixth player to ever complete the career grand slam.
A spot in the U.S. open has to be earned, and before this major victory, Mickelson was unlikely to qualify. However, the win earns him a 5-year exemption into all of the majors.
Mickelson now has 45 career wins, which makes him tied for eighth all-time in tour victories.
Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012, Mickelson already has been solidified as one of the best golfers in the history of the sport.
This major win adds more to the legacy of Mickelson, who many assumed was incapable of returning to the winner’s circle.
The last major that Mickelson had won was in 2013 at the Open Championship. Since then, Mickelson has had his share of struggles with only two wins in the last eight years.
Mickelson had been missing more cuts than ever before, and even fell out of the top-100 world golf ranking for the first time since the early 90’s.
The return to glory for fan-favorite Mickelson will go down as one of the great moments to happen in the history of the sport.