Phil Mickelson skipping 2017 U.S. Open for daughter’s graduation

Phil Mickelson won’t be playing at Erin Hills for the 2017 U.S. Open, but it’s hard to argue with his reason as to why he’s missing the tournament

Especially given Tiger Woods’ recent struggles, there’s very little remaining of the “old” guard on the PGA Tour. Particularly when it comes to playing at a high level, truly only Phil Mickelson remains in that group. Lefty, however, has entered his mid-40s and remained as forceful as ever when on the course. Unfortunately, he won’t be on the course at the 2017 U.S. Open.

After his third round at the Memorial Tournament on Saturday, Mickelson broke the news that he would not be playing at Erin Hills in Wisconsin in two weeks at the U.S. Open, per The New York Times. However, he had plenty of reason to miss it.

Mickelson’s daughter is graduating on Thursday — the day of the first round — at around 10:00 a.m. ET and is also speaking at the ceremony. Obviously he doesn’t want to miss that. What’s more, the timing of it makes playing virtually impossible.

Following his round, Mickelson further elaborated on the matter, and spoke on how he wanted to get it out of the way now to help out the tournament and not create a distraction the week of the U.S. Open:

Though fans want the big names at the majors, no one can fault Mickelson’s decision here. Even if he wasn’t in his mid-40s, missing a tournament for a daughter’s graduation is a worthy reason. At his age, it truly becomes even more so.

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With that being said, he’s still one of the best in the world even at his age. Thus, it’s a shame he won’t be out there competing. When he does get back on the links, though, you can look to find him at least sniffing the top of the leaderboard, without a doubt.