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 With 39 PGA Tour wins, a U.S. Amateur title and four major championship victories, Phil Mickelson could probably be considered one of the top-20 golfers of all time.
If Mickelson were to leave the game today, he’d fall somewhere around the Lee Trevino, Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros group when evaluating the game’s all-time best. But Mickelson is by no means finished. He won the Masters just 13 months ago and he’s hitting the ball longer than ever as we head into the second major of the 2011 season. Despite an arthritic condition and a series of family illnesses in recent years, Mickelson still has a lot of fuel left in the tank, which should bode well for Lefty, because he’s a lot closer than many people think to cracking into the short-list of the top-10 greatest golfers of all time. As Tiger Woods’ future remains uncertain and the major championship fields are as wide open as they’ve been since the early 90’s, it’s by no means a stretch to believe that Mickelson may have a U.S. Open win and at least one more Masters or PGA Championship win left in him. Let’s for arguments sake say that Mickelson captures a U.S. Open and another Masters over the next few years as well as 10 more PGA Tour victories, again, by no means an unfathomable prediction. That would bring Mickelson to 49 PGA Tour wins, six majors, a U.S. Amateur title and 57 worldwide wins, most of which would have occurred during the era of the most dominant player the game has ever seen. At this point, Mickelson is getting up towards players like Arnold Palmer, Gene Sarazen and Tom Watson. Considering the presence of Woods during this time period, one could certainly make an argument that Mickelson did indeed have a career as impressive as the likes of Palmer, Sarazen and Watson, despite having one less major than Sarazen and two less majors than Palmer and Watson. At 41 years old, Mickelson is treading along a tight rope of golfing greatness. He can fall one way into a couple of more major wins and he’s right up there with the all-time greats. Or he could fall the other way into a slow but steady decline, in which case he’d still be considered a great player, but just a notch below that truly elite group. As we head into the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club, no one in the field measures up to Mickelson in terms of his experience winning major championships Just to put things into perspective, Mickelson won the 2004 Masters when Rory McIlory was just 14 years old, and Mickelson still hits the ball every bit as long as McIlory does today. Mickelson has a window, albeit one that will likely close within the next four years, to elevate himself into that group of truly elite players. When looking at numbers, we always seem to look at Woods’ 14 majors and the five more he needs to win in order to pass Nicklaus’ record. But Mickelson is chasing down his own little piece of history, and his magic number is probably two. Two more majors (including a U.S. Open) and Mickelson cracks the list of the top-10 greatest golfers of all time.
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