MICKELSON: It’s Lefty’s Tour Now

No longer in Tiger’s shadow, Phil Mickelson can finally assert his dominance on a major tour

There was Tiger. There was Phil. 

Phil almost always took a backseat to Tiger for over two decades on the PGA Tour. Phil was the Red Sox to Tiger’s Yankees, always great but he could rarely get past Tiger’s pinstripes. Tiger had the titles and Phil had a curse similar to the Bambino.

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Now, there’s just Tiger for the (majority of events on the) PGA Tour. As for Phil Mickelson, he finally has the chance to absolutely dominate as the main attraction.

With turning his life odometer past 50, the prodigious southpaw from San Diego gained the right to join the PGA Tour Champions. What did Phil do in tournament number one? Mickelson dominated. 

In his first start at Big Cedar Lodge in the Ozarks, Phil had the clubhouse lead after all three rounds and defeated Tim Petrovic by 4 strokes, carding an impressive -22.

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So what does this mean for Lefty? It means the PGA Tour Champions is his to dominate as the star, the media darling, the face he never was able to be because of Woods owning every spotlight. 

Let’s look at the top 25 current players on the Champions Tour and there are some definite headlining golf names: Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples, Miguel Angel Jiminez, Colin Montgomorie, Steve Stricker, and also guys like Jim Furyk and Davis Love III further down the money list. 

All of these names are wonderful, but if you polled 100 people on the street about any of those names, most people wouldn’t have a clue who any of these people are. But if you ask them Phil Mickelson, you’ll probably hear an “Oh, yeah…pro golfer” batted around a lot more than someone being asked what is a Rocco Mediate. 

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Heck, many would probably think a Rocco Mediate is a cocktail or something that requires taking big pills and drinking lots of water.

The early days of the PGA Senior Tour had legends like Jack, Arnie, Lee, Chi Chi, Gary, and others making the rounds. But since their respective retirements, the PGA Tour Champions has been a relative vacuum of nothingness for way too long. Despite many great golfers playing in its ranks today, it’s still a boring generic nothing burger of air time to fill on Golf Channel. 

Until now.

Phil Mickelson was forced to eat Tiger’s leftovers for way too long as well. With jumping over to the PGA Tour Champions, Mickelson can finally put aside the also ran status that living in the monstrous shadow of the big cat relegated him to. 

Phil has the chance now to be the brand…the face…the icon hitting bombs while working those ridiculous calves and mirrored Ray Bans to an all new audience. 

Phil is probably never going to win that elusive U.S. Open. He’s 50. The younger guys are and were finding ways to beat him at most every turn. He knows that truck has sailed for the most part on the PGA Tour and will have to settle for those paltry five majors. But on the Champions circuit, Phil Mickelson can be the big cat, the top dog, the face and the name to hit that Tour with the crash cart paddles it so desperately needed for well over a decade.

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With Phil being Phil, the PGA Tour Champions is going to be more than excited to hearing Mickelson yell “CLEAR!” as he shocks them back to life, and most likely eats up a hell of a lot of bank in the process while possibly elevating the purses this Tour offers.

And every golfer on that Tour should be damn thankful for that.

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