Mickelson’s not so wild about a Presidents card

Phil Mickelson admits he does not deserve a wild card for the Presidents Cup and feels United States captain Tiger Woods has “a lot better options” at his disposal.

Mickelson has made 24 consecutive appearances in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, qualifying automatically 20 times. The last time the five-time major winner failed to make such a team was in 1993.

However, since winning the AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm in February, Mickelson has recorded just one top20 finish on the PGA Tour – a tie for 18th at the Masters – and has slipped to 47 th in the world.

Mickelson moved inside the world’s top 50 for the first time after finishing runner-up in the Casio World Open in November 1993 and has never fallen out since.

Going into this week’s CJ Cup tournament in Jeju Island, South Korea, Mickelson was asked about receiving one of the four wild cards.

He said: “No, no, no. I have not played well in the last seven, eight months. There are much better options of players that have played consistently at a high level that deserve to be on the team and I have not.

“Even if I were to win (this week), I have not done enough to warrant a pick.”

Mickelson is part of a strong field on Jeju Island which features Danny Willett, Tommy Fleetwood, US Open champion Gary Woodland, 2017 winner Justin Thomas and defending champion Brooks Koepka.

Koepka’s four-shot win over Woodland last year saw him become world number one for the first time and the four-time major winner has now spent a total of 31 weeks at the top of the rankings in four spells.