RSSMickelson Gets 40th Career Win
February 14, 2012
Johnny Goodman - See all 177 of my articles
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Phil Mickelson picked up his 40th career PGA tour win this past weekend at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. He made putt after putt while pocketing a smooth $1,152,000 for his efforts.
The media has touted this as a Phil versus Tiger deal. Yes it is true that they played in the same group on Sunday. Yes it is true that Phil played a much better round than Tiger as well. Phil played better than everyone to be exact, coming from 6 shots back to win on Sunday.
Mickelson shot a 64, highlighted by two par saving bombs to keep his round going. His 64 was three shots better than any other golfer in the field on Saturday.
Tied for 9th All-Time
Phil moves into a tie for 9th place of all time behind an extremely impressive lists of folks on the all-time wins list:
| Rank | Player | Wins |
| 1 | Sam Snead | 82 |
| 2 | Jack Nicklaus | 73 |
| 3 | Tiger Woods | 71 |
| 4 | Ben Hogan | 64 |
| 5 | Arnold Palmer | 62 |
| 6 | Byron Nelson | 52 |
| 7 | Billy Casper | 51 |
| 8 | Walter Hagen | 45 |
| T9 | Cary Middlecoff | 40 |
| T9 | Phil Mickelson | 40 |
Phil has always been a very popular player among the golf fans. He is very outspoken, very personable and appears to be very genuine. He has done a lot of work with Special Olympics, and even brought attention to cancer when his wife Amy was diagnosed and going through treatments a couple of years ago.
The Ones That Got Away
Even with forty career wins, Lefty is more often remembered for the ones he didn’t win.
There is no doubt that Mickelson will go down as one of the most popular golfers of all time. His swashbuckling style of play over the years is part of what endeared so many fans towards his camp, but in the end that is also what ultimately may have caused him not to win a few more tournaments.
He has finished in second place at the U.S. Open an astonishing 5 times. He also has two other 4th place finishes to his credit in that tournament. He has never been ranked as the #1 golfer in the world, primarily as he has played a large part of his career during the same span as Tiger Woods.
Mickelson was selected to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame this year for his career efforts. Players on tour are not eligible until they are at least 40 years of age. Mickelson turned 40 this past year and was basically immediately voted in through the selection process.
Congratulations Phil. This is a great achievement and here is hoping that you add a few more wins to your tally this year.
Augusta is just seven weeks away…..
Until next time
Stay classy Carmel, California!
Feb 14, 2012 @ 12:21:47
I think everything was going Phil’s way on Sunday while Tiger didn’t exactly have his “A” game that day. Is this the way it’s going to be when they play again this year. I don’t think so! But if they do meet up again, just maybe at the Masters, it will be interesting. Phil will have a lot of confidence while Tiger will be still searching to regain that supreme confidence he had when he was winning all his majors.