Weekly Recap: Phil The Thrill

In light of Phil Mickelson doing the impossible -- not only winning a major at age 50 but simply winning a tournament -- two questions come to mind: Where does this place him in the fantasy golf landscape for the rest of this season and beyond? And where does this place him in golf history?

It's all subjective, of course, but there was a pretty fair consensus before Mickelson won the PGA Championship on Sunday that he was among the 15 best PGA Tour golfers of all-time. Some lists might even have had him at the very back of the top 10, but those were few and far between.

Here are some names, not in an exact order, to consider: Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Walter Hagen, Tom Watson, Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Lee Trevino, Billy Casper, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo.

Mickelson's sixth major moved him into a tie for 12th on the all-time list and his 45th PGA Tour victory moved him into a tie for eighth all-time. Now, if you look at the golfers who are ahead of him on both lists, there are just five: Nicklaus, (18 majors, 73 wins), Woods (15, 82), Hogan (9, 64), Snead (7, 82) and Palmer (7, 62). Hagen is even with Mickelson at 45 PGA Tour wins but has 11 majors.

There are so many variables that make this an inexact science: It's hard to compare golfers of different eras; there are more great players today than ever before; some of the aforementioned golfers divided their time internationally; there weren't always four majors, such as when Hagen was in his prime; the PGA used to be a match-play tournament; some top guys loaded up inordinately on one major -- call that the Rafael Nadal Effect; and, in the case of Jones, he was an amateur and never played on Tour.

It would be near-impossible to put Mickelson ahead of Woods, Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Hogan, Snead and Jones. Sure, there are people who will say that Mickelson is better than some of them because today's athletes are just better than those from long ago -- equipment, training, etc.

So, where do we see Mickelson now? He's firmly top-10 after being firmly top-15, but top-5 unless he wins more, and more majors.

Which brings us to what Mickelson does next, and therefore what his fantasy value is.

What he'll be doing immediately next is playing in the Charles Schwab Challenge this week, which seems unbelievable. But he committed to it before winning the PGA, and he said he will fulfill that commitment. And then before you know it comes the U.S. Open at, of all places, Torrey Pines. Imagine if the six-time Open runner-up could complete the career grand slam. Where would that place him on the all-time list?

Mickelson noted on Sunday that "it's very possible that this is the last tournament I ever win. Like if I'm being realistic. But it's also very possible that I may have had a little bit of a breakthrough in some of my focus and maybe I go on a little bit of a run, I don't know."

Of course, none of us knows. Nobody picked Mickelson to win the PGA. He had had only one top-20 in more than a year. He had fallen well outside the top 100 in the world rankings. He's now back up to 32nd. THIRTY-SECOND!

There were occasional glimpses of The Old Phil -- 25th at the Honda, 21st at the Masters – but more often than not he just looked like An Old Phil.
 
The advice here is, avoid Mickelson at all costs at Colonial -- he couldn't possibly have a good week right after the PGA, right? But after that, we now know to never underestimate him again.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Brooks Koepka
We saw what Koepka could do when healthy, even with hardly any competitive golf in months. He almost won his fifth major -- and where would that have put him on the all-time list of greats? Koepka said his surgically repaired right knee was "dinged" in the scrum that followed Mickelson up the 18th hole. So will Koepka be healthy for Torrey Pines? He has had a series of injuries the past couple of years so we have to wonder how sturdy he will be the rest of his career. But what we saw at Kiawah is that Koepka has more major wins in him, and it would surprise no one if it happened next month.

Louis Oosthuizen
Oosthuizen tied Koepka for second place, yet another major runner-up for the South African. That is now five in his career, to go along with his win at the 2010 Open Championship. He just missed another runner-up at last year's U.S. Open. It's hard to believe it was his putting that let him down at the Ocean Course – he is first on Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting. Now up to 20th in the world, Oosthuizen can be a force in the remaining big events in 2021. But not this week – he has pulled out of Colonial.

Paul Casey
The ever-steady Casey continued a great 2021 by finishing in a four-way tie for fourth. He was runner-up at last year's PGA. If he can finish in the top-5 at a course as long as the Ocean Course, then he can succeed just about anywhere.

Shane Lowry
Lowry will soon finally defend his title for winning the Open Championship in 2019, and he is trending very nicely leading up to it. He was top-10 at THE PLAYERS, top-25 at the Masters and now top-5 at the PGA. Lowry has three top-10s at the U.S. Open in the past six years, including runner-up in 2016, so watch out for the big Irishman at Torrey Pines. He was only $7,800 on DraftKings and you wonder how much higher he can go for the next major. Not much.

Harry Higgs
This was Higgs' first career major and what a week it was. He was part of the four-way tie for fourth, which earned him a spot in next year's Masters. Earlier this season, Higgs was runner-up to Stewart Cink at the Safeway, so he keeps getting done in by really old golfers. He had missed nine of 16 cuts since then, so this result came out of nowhere. Higgs was $6,400 on DraftKings.
 
Padraig Harrington
What a story this would've been if not for Mickelson. But Harrington is only 49 and only tied for fourth. This was his best finish in a major in almost a decade (T4, 2012 U.S. Open). This was his best worldwide finish in almost three years, since the 2018 Czech Masters. Harrington is up to 141st in the world – not too far from where Mickelson was before winning the PGA. He probably thought he had played his last Masters, but he'll be back next year for the first time since 2015.

Jon Rahm
Rahm was part of a nine-way tie for eighth place. Yet another top-10 result and another top-10 in a major. But when will Rahm win one? His next chance is at Torrey Pines, where he's already won once in his career.

Tony Finau
He also tied for eighth, giving him nine top-10s in his past 13 majors. He was only $8,600 on DraftKings -- watch for a similar price at the U.S. Open.

Collin Morikawa
In his PGA title defense, he tied for eighth. He showed that with his iron game, he can compete anywhere if he can only make some putts, even at the mega-long Ocean Course.

Rickie Fowler
Fowler recorded his first top-10 in more than a year, since the 2020 Amex, as part of the big tie for eighth. He had not looked good for more than a year, but he still had occasional good weeks – three other top-25s in 2021 -- and carried so much major experience into Kiawah. If not for a closing bogey, he would've finished top-5. Fowler's price on DraftKings was $7,000. It should go up for the U.S. Open, but maybe not all that much.

Will Zalatoris
With his tie for eighth, Zalatoris has now gone T6-2-T8 in his past three majors. Imagine when he gets some real major experience?

Justin Rose
He's 40 years old and he has finished top-10 in the first two majors of the year, tying for eighth at the PGA after a T7 at the Masters.
 
Kevin Streelman
Streelman was fully in the mix for the title on Sunday. But he couldn't sustain it and wound up with six bogeys en route to a 75. Still, he notched his best major finish ever (T8) in 26 starts.

Charley Hoffman
Hoffman was amid a very good season. Hoffman's record in PGAs was abysmal: only three made cuts in 11 starts with nothing inside the top-40 ever. Something had to give. The 2021 version of Hoffman won out. He continued his excellent play and flirted with a top-10 before tying for 17th.

Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay was actually inside the top-5 on the back nine on Sunday. But he bogeyed 14 and tripled 17 to tumble into a tie for 23rd. Still, for someone who has missed three straight cuts coming in and four of five, it's a big step in the right direction.

Bryson DeChambeau, Gary Woodland, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
If you're wondering why these three guys disappeared from your TV after being in or around the top-5 on the weekend, they all collapsed with 5-over 77s on Sunday. There weren't many worse scores over the final round. DeChambeau had a whopping eight bogeys. Woodland had three bogeys – but also two doubles. Bezuidenhout had six bogeys plus a double. 

Garrick Higgo
The 22-year-old South African who's been tearing up the European Tour with three wins since September made the cut in his first major. He had a good final round, a three-under 69, to tie for 64th.

Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele
Three of the top four golfers in the world missed the cut. It was a big surprise for both Thomas and Schauffele, but maybe not so much Johnson, who has been slumping for almost all of 2021.

Cameron Tringale
Having a great season, Tringale opened with a 70 but then collapsed with an 82 on Friday, which included a quintuple-bogey 10 on the par-5 16th. That 82 actually broke down as a 48 on his first nine, and then an impressive come-back 34 to finish up. Regardless, it was an improvement over last year, when Tringale suffered his second DQ from the PGA.