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No player has ever won The Open – or, indeed, any major – following their 50th birthday, but Phil Mickelson is likely to feel he has a better chance than most of changing that statistic.
After the Champion Golfer of 2013 turned 50 last Tuesday, we look at three reasons why Lefty could well remain a strong contender at golf’s original championship for years to come.
Mickelson freely admits his performances at The Open in the first two decades of his career were “nothing to be proud of,” with a third-placed finish at Royal Troon in 2004 representing the only placing of note across his first 17 appearances from 1991 to 2010.
However, after working hard to adapt his play to the unique challenges of links golf, Mickelson has been a regular feature at the top of Open leaderboards in the past decade.
Either side of his memorable victory at Muirfield seven years ago, he earned second-place finishes at Royal St George’s in 2011 and Royal Troon in 2016, performing particularly impressively in the latter event only to be edged out by an inspired Henrik Stenson.
In his Chronicles of a Champion Golfer, Mickelson said: “I think in The Open Championship, because it’s much more of a precision game and it’s impossible to overpower links golf, I feel like as you get older in your career you have more and more chances.”
That statement would certainly appear true in Mickelson’s case. Since 2010, when he celebrated his 40th birthday, no player has finished in the top two at The Open more often than he has.
To hear more about how Phil Mickelson remains a strong Open contender north of 50, continue reading here.
The R&A