{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
Asked to describe Phil Mickelson, a PGA Tour player once said, “He’s like Google, he has all the answers.”
It’s true, Mickelson has more self-confidence and self-assurance than many but it’s part of what has made him the golfer he is. He didn’t just imagine winning the PGA Championship at 50 years old, he did it on an Ocean Course that preys on a golfer’s uncertainty.
So here’s a question not for Mickelson but about him:
With his sixth major championship victory, 45 PGA Tour wins and the distinction of being the oldest major winner in golf history, where does he fit in the game’s list of great players?
Top-10 lists are the meat and potatoes of talk shows and social media, but there is a reason why they’re popular beyond being easy to consume:
They can offer context even if they’re usually nothing more than a person’s often misguided opinion. It’s an endeavor made for debate.
That said, Mickelson is now in the discussion as one of the 10 best players of all time.
Does he belong there?
Who gets in, Mickelson or Tom Watson?
Walter Hagen or Mickelson?
Gene Sarazen or Mickelson?
Let’s start with the easy part, which means starting at the top.
Jack Nicklaus – He gets the No. 1 spot ahead of Tiger Woods by virtue of his major championship record that includes 18 wins, 19 second-place finishes and 56 top-five finishes. He still owns the distinction of being the greatest golfer ever, though if you want to flip the top two positions I can make that case, too.
Tiger Woods – He has played the greatest golf ever – Nicklaus said that – and had it not been for all of his injuries, Woods would be No.1. He owned the scoring record in every major, dominated the PGA Tour for more than a decade and took the game where no one thought it could go.
Ben Hogan – To some, the game almost starts and ends with Hogan, who still inspires a reverence like no one else. The wreck, the comeback, the swing, not to mention 64 Tour wins and nine majors. Just look at his U.S. Open record – it says it all.
Sam Snead – His brilliance has been underappreciated somehow, but it doesn’t change his greatness. He won 82 PGA Tour events, seven majors and had a top-10 finish in a major in five decades.
Bobby Jones – Like Hogan, Jones is an almost reverential figure in the game’s history. His career wasn’t as long as some but he managed to finish in the top 10 in 27 majors – and he only played 31, winning 13 of them. Oh yeah, he created Augusta National, too.
Arnold Palmer – His impact reaches beyond the tournaments he won and he won a lot of them. Palmer embodied golf and still does to some. He’s the game’s all-time star.
Gary Player – He didn’t just play in the era of Nicklaus and Palmer, he was their equal in many ways. He won the career Grand Slam and has three Masters and three Open Championships among his nine majors. And, perhaps you’ve heard, he’s traveled more than anyone in doing it.
Now it starts getting difficult. Three places left in the top 10 but more than three players with deserving résumés. There’s also the bias against players who played long ago such as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen.
The question isn’t how good they would be today – very good is the answer – but how their careers stack up. Let’s finish this.
Walter Hagen – As flamboyant characters go, he may be at the top of the list but he was a huge force in the game for a long time. He won 11 professional major championships (only Nicklaus and Woods have more) and that doesn’t include the five Western Opens he won when it was treated like a major.
Tom Watson – Better than anyone, Watson went head-to-head with Nicklaus and won his share, most notably the 1977 Open Championship at Turnberry and the 1982 U.S Open at Pebble Beach. He’s the definition of pure grit on the golf course.
That leaves us with one spot and four candidates – Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Seve Ballesteros and Mickelson.
All Sarazen did was win the career Grand Slam, seven majors, invent the sand wedge and hit a fairly famous shot on the 15th hole in the 1935 Masters.
All Nelson did was win 11 tournaments in a row, 18 in one year and have a swing machine named after him.
All Ballesteros did was become the most impactful European player ever and recreate the Ryder Cup into what it is today.
And all Mickelson has done is, well, the world saw it last week at the PGA Championship.
The world also saw it when he won a PGA Tour event as an amateur, when he won three NCAA individual championships, when he won the U.S. Amateur, when he won three Masters, an Open Championship at Muirfield and two PGA Championships, among his 45 PGA Tour wins.
Throw in the spectacular near misses in the U.S. Open, the short game magic and the personality and we have the answer to our question.
Phil Mickelson – He belongs in the top 10 players of all time.
He didn’t have to say it. He did it in the Tiger era. His record says enough.
E-Mail Ron