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The following biography
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Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16,
1970) (nicknamed "Lefty" for having a left-handed swing), is an American
professional golfer. He is one of the leading players of his generation,
having won three major championships and a total of 29 events on the PGA
Tour. He has reached a career high world ranking of 2nd in multiple
years.
****
Personal Information
Birth: June 16, 1970,
San Diego, California
Height: 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Nationality: United States
Residence: Rancho Santa Fe, California
Career
College: Arizona State University
Turned Professional: 1992
Current Tour: PGA Tour (joined 1992)
Professional wins: 33 (PGA Tour 29; others
4)
Majors: Masters (2004, 2006)
PGA Championship (2005)
Awards: None
****
Career summary
Mickelson was born in San Diego, California
and raised in Arizona and San Diego. Starting at the age of one and a
half, Mickelson mirrored his father's golf swing. [1] Due to this,
Mickelson swings a golf club left-handed, but writes right-handed. He
graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1988, then
attended Arizona State on a golf scholarship, from which he graduated in
1992. In 1990, he became the first left-hander to win the U.S. Amateur
title. In 1991, he had won his first PGA Tour tournament at the Northern
Telecom Open as an amateur, becoming the first to do so since Scott
Verplank at the 1985 Western Open in Chicago.
Mickelson continued to win many PGA Tour
tournaments, including the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and the World
Series of Golf in 1996, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1998,
the Colonial in 2000 and the Greater Hartford Open in 2001 and again in
2002. Mickelson also shot a round of 59 at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at
Poipu Bay Golf Course on November 24, 2004. Mickelson was known for his
powerful full swing but even more so for his superlative short game,
most of all his daring "Phil flop" shot in which a big swing with a
high-lofted wedge against a tight lie flies a ball high into the air for
a short distance.
Despite these accomplishments, for many
years Mickelson was often described as the "best golfer never to win a
major." Mickelson often played well in majors: in the five-year span
between 1999 and 2003 he had six second-place or third-place finishes.
But victory always eluded him, for reasons that were ascribed to taking
too many risky shots, missing too many short putts, or a general lack of
what it takes to close out a big tournament. Undaunted, Mickelson
continued to refine his game and his course strategy and psychology.
His first major championship win came at
the 2004 Masters, where he won with a 20-foot final hole birdie putt,
defeating Ernie Els in a Sunday back-nine duel in which the stars traded
birdies and eagles back and forth. In addition to getting the "majors
monkey" off his back, this made him only the third golfer with a
left-handed swing to win a major, the others being New Zealander Sir Bob
Charles who won the British Open in 1963 and Canadian Mike Weir who won
The Masters in 2003. (Like Mickelson, Weir is a right-hander who plays
left-handed.)
The following year, in a Monday final
round, Mickelson captured his second career major championship with his
victory at the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. On the 18th hole,
Mickelson hit one of his trademark soft pitches from deep greenside
rough to within a foot and a half of the cup, and then made his birdie
to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve
Elkington and Thomas Bjørn. Mickelson captured his third major
championship the following spring by winning the 2006 Masters. He won
his second Green Jacket after shooting a 3 under par final round,
winning by 2 strokes over his nearest rival Tim Clark. This win
propelled him to 2nd place in the Official World Golf Rankings (his
career best), behind Tiger Woods and ahead of Vijay Singh and Retief
Goosen.
At the 2006 U.S. Open (golf) at Winged
Foot, Phil finished second to Geoff Ogilvy after one of the most
memorable last hole collapses in major championship golf. Phil hit a
driver far left after attempting to hit a "baby slice" and decided to go
for the green with his second shot rather than pitch out into the
fairway. His ball then hit a tree, with the following shot plugging into
the greenside bunker. Phil was unable to get up and down, leading to his
only double bogey of the tournament on the 72nd hole, and costing him
the championship.
Reflecting on his performance afterwards
Phil admitted: "I still am in shock that I did that. I just can't
believe I did that. I'm such an idiot". [2]
Demonstrating grace after even the toughest
defeats, showing appreciation to legions of his fans and always honoring
the traditions and history of the game has made Phil one of the most
popular players ever to play on the Tour. During the third round of the
2006 Ford Championship at Doral, Mickelson gave $200 to a spectator
after his tee shot went wayward at the par-5 10th, and broke the man's
watch. [3]
Major Championships
Wins (3)
Results timeline
|
Tournament |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
|
The Masters |
DNP |
T46
LA |
DNP |
T34 |
DNP |
T7 |
3 |
CUT |
T12 |
T6 |
|
U.S. Open |
T29
LA |
T55
LA |
CUT |
DNP |
T47 |
T4 |
T94 |
T43 |
T10 |
2 |
|
British Open |
DNP |
T73 |
DNP |
DNP |
CUT |
T40 |
T41 |
T24 |
79 |
CUT |
|
PGA Championship |
DNP |
DNP |
DNP |
T6 |
3 |
CUT |
T8 |
T29 |
T34 |
T57 |
LA = Low Amateur
DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Green background for wins. Yellow
background for top-10.
PGA Tour wins (29)
1991 (1) Northern Telecom Open (as an
amateur)
1993 (2) Buick Invitational of California,
The International
1994 (1) Mercedes Championships
1995 (1) Northern Telecom Open
1996 (4) Nortel Open, Phoenix Open, GTE
Byron Nelson Golf Classic, NEC World Series of Golf
1997 (2) Bay Hill Invitational, Sprint
International
1998 (2) Mercedes Championships, AT&T
Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
2000 (4) Buick Invitational, BellSouth
Classic, MasterCard Colonial, The Tour Championship
2001 (2) Buick Invitational, Canon Greater
Hartford Open
2002 (2) Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Canon
Greater Hartford Open
2004 (2) Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, The
Masters
2005 (4) FBR Open, AT&T Pebble Beach
National Pro-Am, BellSouth Classic, PGA Championship
2006 (2) BellSouth Classic, The Masters
Major championships are shown in bold.
Other professional wins (4)
1993 Tournoi Perrier Paris (Europe,
Challenge Tour not European Tour event)
2001 Tylenol Par-3 Shootout at Treetops
Resort
2004 TELUS Skins Game, PGA Grand Slam of
Golf
PGA Tour career summary* Complete through
end of 2006 season.
|
Year |
Majors |
Other wins |
PGA Tour wins |
Earnings ($) |
Rank |
|
1991 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
see note |
N/A |
|
1992 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
171,714 |
90 |
|
1993 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
628,735 |
22 |
|
1994 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
748,316 |
15 |
|
1995 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
655,777 |
28 |
|
1996 |
0 |
4 |
4 |
1,697,799 |
2 |
|
1997 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1,225,390 |
11 |
|
1998 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1,837,246 |
6 |
|
1999 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1,722,681 |
14 |
|
2000 |
0 |
4 |
4 |
4,746,457 |
2 |
|
2001 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
4,403,833 |
2 |
|
2002 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
4,311,971 |
2 |
|
2003 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1,623,137 |
38 |
|
2004 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
5,784,823 |
3 |
|
2005 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
5,699,605 |
3 |
|
2006 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4,217,005 |
3 |
|
Career* |
3 |
26 |
29 |
39,474,558 |
3 |
Note:Mickelson won as an amateur in 1991
and therefore did not receive any prize money.
Being a very popular golfer as well as a
successful one, Mickelson is able to earn far more from endorsements
than he does in prize money. In 2004, Forbes estimated his annual income
at $20 million.
Team appearances
Amateur
Walker Cup: 1989, 1991
Eisenhower Trophy: 1990
Professional
Presidents Cup: 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000,
2003, 2005
Ryder Cup: 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004,
2006
Alfred Dunhill Cup: 1996 (winners)
****
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URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Mickelson
Date Article Copied:
January 2007
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