Phil has been skating around the edges for decades. But now, on the anniversary of his career-defining PGA Championship win and following a series of

Oh, What a Difference a Year Has Made for Phil Mickelson

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2022-05-21 20:00:20

Phil has been skating around the edges for decades. But now, on the anniversary of his career-defining PGA Championship win and following a series of highly controversial remarks about, well, everything, Mickelson’s reputation hangs in the balance. Can Lefty make one more masterful escape?

“I still am in shock that I did that, I just can’t believe I did that. I’m such an idiot.” —Phil Mickelson, after double-bogeying the 72nd hole of the 2006 U.S. Open to lose by one stroke

Oh, Phil. Over 30 years since he first broke onto the scene, the refrain remains the same. The second-greatest golfer of the Tiger Woods era and one of the dozen best of all time has seemingly been in trouble ever since he set his suitcase down. Flamboyant and gracious, ingenious and oddball, cutthroat and insecure, the six-time major winner’s game is a preposterously entertaining comingling of Errol Flynn and Peter Sellers: one part swashbuckling brilliance, one part inimitable slapstick. He’s been compared to many players from the past: Arnie, for his legion of fans, his derring-do and general magnanimity; Seve, for his scrambling genius and penchant for making the course as hard as possible out of simple boredom.

But ultimately, Phil is a true original. We won’t see the likes of him again. And now, after it was announced he won’t defend his historic, career-defining PGA Championship victory from last year, the question is: Does he have one last great escape left in him?

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