PGA Championship: Phil Mickelson’s legacy win at 50

Phil Mickelson becomes the oldest player to win a major, achieving the win on a dramatic, nail-biting final day at the PGA Championship.

The last time Phil won the PGA was 2005. 16 years later, he’s done it again. At age 50.

Until this day, Lefty’s last major trophy had been achieved at the 2013 Open.

There was one hole that set the seal for Phil Mickelson’s date with history: the fifth. After a topsy-turvy first few holes, that started with two disastrous bogeys on the first and third , it looked like his fairytale run seemed to be getting away from him.

Brooks Koepka had applied the pressure early on with a confident birdie at the outset, then squandering his momentum on the second with a double bogey. The roller coaster play continued as Mickelson answered with his own birdie on the second, but dropped back with another bogey on the third. Once he hit his golf ball into the sand on the fifth, it seemed like doubt was settling in.

But then the 50-year-old hit the shot of his life, thrilling the crowd and cutting through thick tension with an absolute stunner that set the stage for his historic feat.

With that, he tipped his hat and didn’t crack a smile. In fact, he barely smiled all day, knowing that the victory would need to be earned one backbreaking hole at a time. Also, we were on the front nine, where Mickelson did consistently well the previous three days. It was the back nine he would need to worry about, and he was entering the last nine holes with a comfortable margin. You could taste the pressure on each hole, with an aggressive—albeit error-prone—Brooks Koepka nipping at his heels.

He answered the anxiety by knocking out a confident birdie on the 10th, which turned out to give him the edge that he needed to make it through the nerve-wracking 13th hole, which had given him trouble on the last three days. And just like that, he hit the second shot and watched it veer right and drop into the swampy water hazard, adding a two-shot penalty, and giving him a five-shot stumble, bringing his awesome -8 down to an earthlier -7. Another error-prone 14th, his lead evaporated even further to under six.

Lucky for Phil, if he was having a difficult time on the most difficult section of the course, so was everyone else. One by one, the leaderboard scores ripped, allowing Lefty to maintain his lead, even if had decreased from four shots to a three-shot lead.

Phil’s tough competitor on Day Two, Louis Oosthuizen, faded on the final day, finishing at four under. But Brooks Koepka kept up the pressure, birdying holes No. 15 and 16, to tighten up the hole margin to a very uncomfortable two. If Brooks birdied the last hole and Phil bogeyed it, we were heading into a playoff.

But two shots was all Phil needed, and he finished with flair. And finally, Phil smiled, as he walked the green afterward to a chanting, ecstatic crowd.

Mickelson finished the 18th hole with steady bravado, giving the popular golfer his sixth career major, equaling Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino. At age 50, Phil Mickelson is the oldest major winner, bypassing the previous record holder, Julius Boros, by two years, who also achieved the stat at the PGA Championship.

Mickelson was granted an exemption pass for next month’s U.S. Open due to dropping down to No. 115 in the Official World Golf Rankings. He will also turn 51 on June 16, the day before the event starts. The U.S. Open is also the only major he doesn’t possess. He’s been a runner-up at the tournament a heartbreaking six times.

After his masterful win at Kiawah Beach, no one doubts Phil’s chances anymore.