Phil Mickelson's Odds to Win US Open Skyrocket After PGA Championship Victory

In what was one of the most unexpected results in major championship history, Phil Mickelson turned back the clock and won the PGA Championship to become the oldest major winner in the history of the sport at 50 years old.

Mickelson was 250/1 to pull it off before the opening tee shot on Thursday, and many people still didn’t believe in him ahead of the final round on Sunday when he had a one-stroke lead. Hand up, I was one of those people who thought we were going to see a Lefty collapse.

After Mickelson lifted the Wanamaker Trophy, sportsbooks were quick to adjust his odds to win this year’s US Open. WynnBET now has Phil listed at +5000 (50/1) to win this year’s third major.

Isn’t that a little bit of an overreaction?

Despite putting it all together for one weekend, setting Mickelson’s odds right up there with the likes of Matt Fitzpatrick, Corey Conners, and Paul Casey is a little bit of a stretch. Heading into the start of the PGA Championship, Mickelson ranked 175th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained. After the historic performance, Mickelson has moved up to T143 in that stat, which is still not good enough to justify those types of odds.

Then of course there’s the added pressure of completing the career grand slam.

Mickelson has wins at the Masters, the Open Championship, and the PGA Championship, but falling short at the US Open has been a common theme in his career. With this year’s edition of the event taking place at his home course of Torrey Pines, it would truly be a storybook ending if he can pull it off.

Mickelson was originally offered a special exemption to compete at this year’s event, as he had fallen down the world rankings enough that he did not qualify using the usual methods. Originally, Mickelson said he had no interest in playing on a special exemption, before eventually accepting the invitation last week.

Mickelson can go ahead and burn that special exemption invitation as his win at Kiawah now means he qualifies for the event as a major champion. Not only that, but he’s now qualified for the tournament for the next five years.

But does he really deserve to be 50/1? Surely there’s a middle ground between 250/1, which is where his odds were ahead of the PGA Championship, and 50/1. Somewhere around 80/1 to 100/1 seems a lot more appropriate, but hey, I’ve been wrong about Mickelson before.

The US Open is set to take place from June 17th- June 20th at the Torrey Pines South Course.