Mickelson feted for top50 streak
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Phil Mickelson received a crystal award Tuesday at the British Open.
One of the hallmarks of Mickelson’s career is playing for so long at a consistently high level, and the Official World Golf Ranking board honored him for a feat that might be as remarkable as his 47 wins worldwide or his five majors.
Starting with a runnerup finish at the Casio World Open in Japan in November 1993 — the same year Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas were born — Mickelson has not been outside the top 50 in the world. The award was for 25 consecutive years, and he’s still going.
“To play for this long, I’m very thankful and appreciative,” Mickelson said.
Peter Dawson, the former R&A chief who now chairs the OWGR board, said Mickelson has been among the top 50 for 1,338 consecutive weeks. The secondlongest streak belongs to Ernie Els, at 965 weeks. Among active streaks, Rory McIlroy is next at 556 weeks.
How has Mickelson done it?
“I don’t have a great answer for that,” Lefty replied, though he suggested a long swing has led to a long career because it has kept him largely free of injuries.
As for the motivation, Mickelson hasn’t lacked that. “I love what I do,” he said, referring to golf as being a soothing, almost spiritual feeling. “I need it to function.”
Even with this remarkable accomplishment, Mickelson can’t avoid questions about his sixday fast in which he says he lost 15 pounds. He posted a message on Twitter that begins, “Let’s get real.”
He says he hasn’t been at his best and wanted a “hard reset.” So he did a sixday fast, drinking nothing but water and a special coffee blend designed for wellness. Mickelson said he craved food for the first day but was fine after that.
“I don’t know if it will help me play better, but it makes feel better about myself,” he said. Tight schedule: Justin Rose isn’t alone in trying to adjust to a schedule that stacks one major on top of the next one during four months: the Masters in April, PGA Championship in May, U.S. Open in June and British Open in July.
“I think we’re all trying to adapt to this new schedule, this new rhythm of the majors, and they seem to be coming thick and fast at the moment,” Rose said. “It’s about trying to peak, valley and peak again. … I think it’s trial and error figuring out what’s going to work. One major a month … in my opinion, they’re too soon.”
The schedule was rearranged to allow the PGA Tour season to finish at the end of August, before football. Rose argues that majors should be “protected the most” because “that’s how all of our careers ultimately are going to be measured.” McCormack Award: For the second straight year, Dustin Johnson received a trophy at the British Open.
Johnson won the Mark H. McCormack Award again for spending the most weeks (35) at No. 1 in the world in 2018. He joins Tiger Woods and McIlroy as the only players to win it more than once. Woods won it the first 13 years the award existed.
The other winners of the award, which began in 1998, were Luke Donald and Jason Day.
It was named after the founder of IMG who was behind the notion of ranking golfers worldwide, which became official at the 1986 Masters.