Philip Alfred "Phil" Mickelson was born on June 16, 1970. He is an American professional golfer. He is one of the leading players of his generation, having won two major championships and a total of twenty-seven events on the PGA Tour.
Born in San Diego, California and raised in Arizona and San Diego, where he graduated high school. Mickelson graduated from Arizona State University. He began playing golf at a very young age. In 1990, Mickelson became the first left-hander to win the U.S. Amateur title. By 1991, he had won his first PGA Tour tournament at the Northern Telecom Open as an amateur, becoming the first to do so since Scott Verplank at the 1985 Western Open. Mickelson continued to win many PGA Tour tournaments, winning at the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and the World Series of Golf in 1996, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1998, the Colonial in 2000 and the Greater Hartford Open in 2001 and again in 2002. However, despite his victories (21 as of 2004), he had yet to win a major championship until his victory at The Masters in '04. Before the victory, he was considered to be the best golfer in the world who had not won a major, often having been accused of "choking" in such events. His Masters win made him only the third golfer with a left-handed swing to win a major, the others being New Zealander Sir Bob Charles who won the British Open in 1963 and Canadian Mike Weir who won The Masters in 2003. (Like Mickelson, Weir is a right-hander who plays left-handed.) Mickelson is also one of only 5 golfers (Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Annika Sörenstam) to have ever shot 59 in competition, and is the only left-hander among them. His 59 came at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Golf Course on November 24, 2004. However, it does not count in the record books because the Grand Slam of Golf does not count as an official event, so there are only 4 golfers to record "official" 59s. In a Monday final round, Mickelson captured his second career major championship with his victory at the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. Mickelson hit a chip shot (one of his trademark 'Phil Flop' shots) to within two feet of the cup. Mickelson made his birdie to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve Elkington and Thomas Björn. As of February 6th, 2006; Phil is sponsored by Callaway Golf, Ford Motor Company, and Bearing Point Communications, as well as Rolex.
Year Majors Other wins PGA TOUR wins Earnings ($) Rank 1991 0 1 1 see note N/A 1992 0 0 0 171,714 90 1993 0 2 2 628,735 22 1994 0 1 1 748,316 15 1995 0 1 1 655,777 28 1996 0 4 4 1,697,799 2 1997 0 2 2 1,225,390 11 1998 0 2 2 1,837,246 6 1999 0 0 0 1,722,681 14 2000 0 4 4 4,746,457 2 2001 0 2 2 4,403,833 2 2002 0 2 2 4,311,971 2 2003 0 0 0 1,623,137 38 2004 1 1 2 5,784,823 3 2005 1 3 4 5,699,605 3 Note:Mickelson won as an amateur in 1991 and therefore did not receive any prize money. Being a very popular golfer as well as a successful one, Mickelson is able to earn far more from endorsements than he does in prize money. In 2004, Forbes estimated his annual income at $20 million.
