On October 13th, Beijing time, Phil Mickelson never played so many games at the end of the year since the PGA Tour started in October, not since the start of the new season in January.
But he has never had so many reasons to play the game before.
Mickelson has not had much time to show the US Cup captain Tiger Woods that he should give him a wild card. This means that the record that no one can match is likely to be interrupted. Mickelson participated in the 24th Ryder Cup and the President's Cup, and 20 of them were automatically selected. The last time he did not enter the team was in 1993, when Justin Thomas and Jordan Spice were born.
In the fall of the two events, in addition to weight loss, there are few signs of progress.
But like Mickelson on weekdays, he never lacks optimism.
A player has been so good for so long, and it is really hard for you to find other explanations why he should not be optimistic. Otherwise how can he win the first PGA Tour when he is in college? One year away from the Champions Tour, winning the most recent event?
Or have you been in the top 50 in the world for 26 consecutive years?
"The challenge of playing golf on the highest stage has inspired the best part of my heart," Mickelson said after finishing the 61st place in the Las Vegas competition for the first time since 2005. "That forced me to reach the best state, forced me to work hard, focused on the positive side, to improve my skills. That gave me the direction. That is a big part of my life, I like it very much.
“It’s a very interesting challenge to be able to play my best golf.”
Since winning the championship in Pebble Beach in February, Mickelson has failed to enter the top ten in 18 consecutive races, which is the longest period of his career. The second longest exhaustion period that did not enter the top ten was 16 races, except for three stops in the middle, when he was a senior at Arizona State University.
He started the 29th season of the PGA Tour, and in the fifth hole of the Silver City Resort, the par five was hitting the ball out of bounds and hitting four bogeys. That led him to surrender 75 and was eliminated in the Reciprocal Open. After a week in Las Vegas, he was only four shots behind the weekend, but he shot 74 in the third round of TPC Samlin, knowing that there were six 63 and below shots on that day. number.
Mickelson’s ranking in Las Vegas is so low that he did not receive world points and the world ranking fell to 46.
His next game is the Xijie Cup held in South Korea's Nine Bridges next week. He strongly hinted that he would participate in the World Championships - HSBC Champions he won twice. That was the last game before Woods announced the four captains' wild cards.
If Mickelson is still not good enough in these two games, he will fall out of the top 50 in the world by the end of the year. The last time he was in such a crisis was when he started in 2018. He ranked 49th in the world and he tied for fifth place in the Phoenix Open. A month later, he won the Mexican Championship.
In addition to pure talent, imagination, and willingness to risk playing any ball, the above is the exciting part of Mickelson. Even 49 years old, 7 months is not competitive, what happens to the left-hander players, you really can't tell.
The real point is not to play another presidential cup. His record will definitely be interrupted at some point, and he may need to win a game in order for Woods to skip the 7 players who are ahead of him and give him a wild card, including the US Open champion Gary Wood. Rand, Ricky Fowler, and Woods, who did not say that they would not be part-time in Royal Melbourne in December.
Mickelson does not accept what he believes he can do.
"There is no reason why I can't play my best," he said at the Reciprocal Open. "I can do it physically. My skills are keen. The feel is also there. The various elements are here, I am just Did not play out. But I decided to reverse this situation."
Since 2013, the PGA Tour has changed to the New Year's season, and the left-handers have not played more than two games in the fall. Now he will play at least 3 games, maybe 4 games, if he is in the President's Cup, it will be 5 games.
After that?
In June, the US Open will return to the wing. He once swallowed double bogey on the 18th hole of the stadium and lost his only unsuccessful Grand Slam: the US Open.