Phil Mickelson - always 2nd best?
Phil Alfred Mickelson was born on the 16th of June 1970 in San Diego, California. One of the top American golfers; he has been ranked 2nd during most of his career and has bagged four major championships and 38 events of the PGA Tour.
The nick name of “lefty” comes from the left handed swings that he makes though sometimes inaccurate. His fortunes add up to a great deal and make him the second most earning athlete combining his win prize money and the endorsements, after Tiger Woods in America.
Early years of his career saw him being inspired from his father who played good and then he tried to copy him. One of the greatest golfers today graduated from San Diego High School and later joined the Dan Diego State University on golf scholarship. Phil graduated from the University in 1992 and was the face of amateur golfing at that time.
Highlighting his amateur career were numerous awards like three NCAA individual championships and three Haskins awards in 1990, 1991 and 1992 respectively. One of America’s greatest golfers not only bagged awards but also managed to write his name in the history books by becoming the first left handed golfer to win the US Amateur title. The greatest of his achievement however could be his win in 1991 when he won the US PGA Tour.
This left handed golfer turned pro in 1992 after his graduation. After turning pro he came up with numerous victories like the ones at World Series of Golf, Colonial National Invitation and Greater Hartford Open in 2001 and in 2002. The powerful and yet sweet swings he made were the highlights in his recognition as a great player. Though he made these powerful and sweet shots, they were at times not accurate; his inexperience at that time possibly being the reason.
His performances that continued to improve tournament by tournament saw him being regarded as one of the greatest golfers but one who was not able to win a major. Phil, one of the greatest golfers had put up consistent performances but was unable to make it to the top. In fact he holds the record for most second place finishes in the US Open history with five.
Mickelson joined the PGA Tour and has been a part of it for 15 years now. This skilful golfer has managed 20 plus victories and another fact is that his caddy has been Jim MacKay throughout this time thus far. All the success stories told above account for him being a world class player but again he has not managed to reach the World No. 1 spot till now.
The “lefty” however saw success in the years 2004-06 which saw him winning 3 major titles; first of which was at the Masters in 2004. The year 2004 also saw Phil play in the Ryder Cup but he failed to put up a performance according to what his statistics show. The great sportsman spirit that he displayed on his horrible performance in the Ryder Cup by saying that he was responsible and no other factor shows that he has developed into a great player already.
The second of his major wins came at 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. The Championship saw the golfer finish one shot ahead of Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjorn. Last but not the least the third one came at the 2006 Masters where his dominance was seen over other golfers. This win also boosted his ranking and he ranked a career high 2nd behind Tiger Woods and ahead of Vijay Singh.
2008 provided this golfer with a tough time and he was a little slow but managed to come up with some good results. A win at the Deutsche Championship, third place finish in the FedEx Cup and after his tough competition in the US Open with Tiger Woods marked the end of not such a successful year.
2010 however seems a year of his liking where he managed to get hold of his third Majors title and fourth major championship title. He put up a dominating performance finishing 3 strokes ahead of Lee Westwood. Phil is one of the best left handed golfers and has under achieved according to some experts. It remains to be seen whether this golfer can achieve what, according to some, he was initially destined to achieve keeping in mind his early aged career.
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