WHEN you are 40 years old, you are almost done. When you are 50, goodbye.
Not in golf.
Phil Mickelson, turning 51 on June 16, won the 103rd PGA Championship two days ago to become the oldest winner of a major in 106 years.
He finished with a one-over-par 73. Not that rosy, but it was enough to make him steal a two-shot win and earn his sixth major, tying him with Lee Trevino and Nick Faldo.
And he beat the toughest field ever assembled, achieving the improbable feat at the longest (7,876 yards), most treacherous course in Grand Slam history.
The Kiawah Island Ocean Course in South Carolina off the Atlantic was designed by Pete Dye, notorious for tough-as-nails layouts that punish rather than make the golfer happy—habitually sending the vanquished moping over his beer at the bar.
There is a Dye course in Cavite. Any bloke that has played that course will tell you his round was nothing but almost an eternity of torture. Include me.
Mickelson had his own woes to conquer, but Brooks Koepka and Louie Oosthuizen, both in their early 30s, bowed to Kiawah’s killer hazards in the moment of truth.
Playing in pain, Brooks, a four-time major winner, was hampered by a knee surgery just two months ago. His birdie magic almost all week on the par-5s deserted him, succumbing to bogeys instead in the final round.
And Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champ, saw his rally getting drowned in the water-laced course to lose steam in the homestretch.
Oosthuizen settled for a 73 and Brooks 74 to share second behind Mickelson, whose 6-under-par total gave him his 45th title and put him in a place that money can’t buy: pantheon of greatness.
Before Mickelson, Julius Boros was the oldest major winner at 46 when he won the PGA in 1968 at San Antonio’s Pecan Valley, which became dormant in 2012.
And Mickelson wasn’t even supposed to win as he was a 200-to-1 long shot with his so-so 115th ranking—having won his last major in the 2013 British Open.
Mickelson survived losing his 54-hole lead by bogeying No. 1 that Koepka had birdied.
But he soldiered on, chipping in a birdie from the sand on 6. Egged on by his brother-caddy Tim, he reclaimed the lead at the turn by answering three bogeys with three birdies.
Then he went 4 up with 6 holes to play, only to bogey 13 and 14 on missed green miscues.
But after parring 15, Mickelson birdied 16 on a massive 337-yard drive to restore his three-shot lead with two holes to go.
Although he bogeyed 17, the hardest hole, his two-shot margin going 18 carried him to a summit many thought was impossible for him to scale.
“I hope that this inspires…because there’s no reason why you can’t accomplish your goals at an older age,” said Mickelson. “It just takes a little more work. I will cherish this for my entire life.”
Who wouldn’t?
THAT’S IT Memories rushed back following Phil Mickelson’s historic PGA win on Monday. He was my pro during the Pro-Am preceding the 1996 Toyota World Match Play won 3 & 2 by Ernie Els over Vijay Singh in Wentworth, England (the incomparable Vince Socco authored that unforgettable trip). “Too bad there was no selfie shot back then,” rued Dan Isla, texting from his base in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s all framed in the mind now, Sir John.
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