WGC-Mexico Championship Recap: Mickelson Ends Drought

So many times over the past five years, Phil Mickelson said "close" and "soon." He surely believed he was on the verge of winning a tournament again, but he ended up sounding like the boy who cried wolf. And yet, when Mickelson said over the past few weeks that he was, yes, close, this time things seemed different. It turns out, they were.

Mickelson survived a one-hole playoff with Justin Thomas to end a drama-filled Sunday at the WGC-Mexico and win for the first time since the 2013 Open Championship. The 101-tournament winless stretch was the longest of his Hall of Fame career.

"I can't put into words how much this means to me," the 47-year-old Mickelson told reporters in Mexico City. "I knew it was going to be soon — I've been playing too well for it not to be. But you just never know until it happens."

Mickelson had finished runner-up six times since his previous win, including just three weeks ago at Pebble Beach. It was this recent surge – with high finish after high finish – that made it seem that victory was within reach. Mickelson finished tied for fifth at Torrey Pines, was co-runner-up at Pebble and then tied for sixth at Riviera, setting the stage for Sunday.

Remember, before this four-tournament stretch, Mickelson was on the verge of falling out of the top-50 in the OWGR for the first time in 15 years. Now, he's soared to 18th, his highest standing in almost a year.

The victory was Mickelson's 43rd, ninth all-time, and suddenly Walter Hagen at 45 doesn't seem so far off anymore. Billy Casper at 51, however, seems unreachable, though Mickelson said during his post-victory news conference that he believes he'll get to 50. He also spoke touchingly about this being his first victory with his younger brother, Tim, as his caddie, after a quarter-century with Bones Mackay on the bag.

It's been 27 years since Mickelson's first PGA Tour title, the fourth-longest such gap in PGA Tour history. Ray Floyd, Davis Love III and Sam Snead all are at 28, which now also seems within reach. And at 47, Mickelson became the oldest winner of a World Golf Championship event (Vijay Singh was 45 when he won the 2008 WGC-Bridgestone).

Okay, now that all the obligatory Amazing Phil Stats are out of the way, where does this leave him in fantasy circles? Well, he's certainly in the mix for the Masters in a month. It would be truly something, though, if Mickelson could extend his prosperity into the summer. The reason he hadn't won in five years is the reason it will be hard to remain consistently in contention: He's not young anymore. And there are so many good players. Plus, Mickelson expended so much time and energy just to get people to stop saying "2013" that it's near impossible to not exhale now, at least for a while.

But will Mickelson win again between now and the end of the season? It's impossible to say yes. But it also would be foolish to unequivocally say no.

The feel-good victory for one of golf's most popular players was the centerpiece of an incredible day for the sport. Michelle Wie won her first LPGA event since 2014, and Steve Stricker won his first Champions Tour event for the first time anywhere since 2012. More on Stricker coming up.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Justin Thomas
Thomas is clearly the best player in the world right now, and it's hard to believe he just go to No. 2 in the world after his remarkable comeback in Mexico. Thomas was 11 strokes back halfway through a tournament with an elite field, then shot 62-64, topping it off with a hole-out eagle on 18. If Thomas wasn't out of this tournament after 36 holes, he's not out of any tournament ever.

Rafa Cabrera-Bello
The Spaniard is maybe the "quietest" golfer among the top-25 in the world. But aside from a few weeks, he's been there for more than a year now. Cabrera-Bello tied for third in Mexico, his third top-five in a WGC. Plus he had a top-five at the Open Championship last year. Now playing as a PGA Tour member, Cabrera-Bello is showing American golf fans just how good he can be. He doesn't hit it far, but he hits it straight, and he's a fantastic putter. Hard to believe he's only the third best golfer from Spain.

Tyrrell Hatton
Hatton bogeyed the final hole to miss out on the playoff, but his tie for third with Cabrera-Bello moved him to a career-best No. 13 in the OWGR – and that's better than even Alex Noren. This was the Englishman's fifth top-five in his last 12 worldwide starts, including two wins. Hatton endured a really tough stretch last year, but now we see it was just an aberration. Expect him to contend in more majors and WGCs this year.

Dustin Johnson
Oh, look. It's the No. 1 player in the world. Yes, Johnson is a bit of a forgotten man these days. He's really doing nothing wrong – he already has a win and a runner-up in 2018 and hasn't finished outside the top-16 – but the bar is set so high for him it appears his game is slipping. Johnson tied for seventh on Sunday. We can't help but wonder whether Johnson already has turned his sights to the Masters; he's been waiting a whole year to get back to Augusta. He's almost there.

Adam Hadwin
It was one year ago this week that Hadwin won his first PGA Tour event. He didn't do a whole lot the rest of 2017, so the win appeared to be perhaps an aberration. But the Canadian has run off three top-10s already in 2018, including Sunday's T9. He now heads to the Valspar to defend his title ranked at a career-best-tying 44th in the world. Hadwin's game is so solid, it's hard to envision another prolonged slump like we saw last year. Some younger golfers struggle the week they are defending their first title. We suspect Hadwin will be fine this week.

Bubba Watson
Watson acquitted himself quite nicely after his win at Riviera, following it up with a T9 in Mexico to show that the win was no fluke. If anyone needed further evidence that the two-time Masters champ should be in the Augusta conversation, you now have it.

Shubhankar Sharma
The darling of the week led for much of the tournament before fading into a tie for ninth. But the 21-year-old Indian sensation made a name for himself in his first event on the world stage. Sharma is already a two-time winner on the European Tour, including last month to qualify for Mexico. He's up to 66 in the world but may need to rise a bit more to qualify for the 64-man WGC-Match Play in three weeks. Golf fans everywhere would like to see him again quickly, but this past week will be hard for him to replicate so soon.

Jordan Spieth
If Dustin Johnson seems like a forgotten man, what does that make Spieth? He has five top-25s in six starts this season but hasn't really been in contention at any of them, including his tie for 14th on Sunday. As long as one of the best putters on the planet has trouble putting – Spieth was 42nd in the field in strokes gained putting – he's going to remain forgotten and continue to have trouble contending.

Matthew Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick tied for 30th in Mexico, continuing a trend of mostly subpar showings in big tournaments. Maybe that's being a bit hard on someone who's still only 23, but the Englishman has been ranked high enough (32nd in the OWGR) to qualify for all the big tournaments the past two years. Fitzpatrick has two top-10s in 13 starts in majors and WGCs over that stretch. Maybe he just needs more time.

Steve Stricker
Stricker won the Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Ariz., for his first Champions Tour win. Now, he returns to the regular Tour to play the Valspar this week. It's just the type of course – not overly long, requiring accuracy and putting – on which the 51-year-old Stricker can still compete. Maybe his DFS price went up a bit because of Sunday's win but probably not by a lot.