Jack Nicklaus won all of his PGA tournaments in a 25 year span. Really, all but 3 or 4 were in a 20 year span or less... Phil Mickelson's span of winning tournaments at the PGA level is 27 years..AND COUNTING.. This is some of the best golf I have seen Mickelson play in a long time. And he is supposed to be in his twilight years of the Tour before he rides off to the Senior Tour.
The title of this thread has to be a STAND ALONE statement as there are a ton of "yeh but" statements made to support Nicklaus... Nicklaus basically played a part time PGA TOUR schedule after his first 10-15 years on tour, emphasizing the majors... Nicklaus had his golf course design business ramping up in the late 1970's where he wanted his 'stamp' on all courses carrying his name on design credit. Took a lot of his time away from playing.. Plus he had his MacGregor line of "GOLDEN BEAR" golf equipment and apparel.. Plus, help raise his kids a bit and attend different events of his kids. Charity work as well so Nicklaus was mega busy outside of golf so if he devoted and focused his time on the PGA tour even more than he did, there is no telling how many more wins he would have accumulated. His 46 top-3 finishes at major tournaments is so unbelievable that it may never be broken, especially with so many young and talented players entering the tour today. Nicklaus also battled hip and some back problems so who knows how that affected him during the later years. Still this year at Augusta is the 20 year anniversary of Jack making a run in the 1998 Masters only to finish 6th at age 58.
But for Mickelson, his span of PGA tour wins is still longer than Nicklaus' was and I am not sure Lefty is done... He played the WGC in Mexico City this weekend and won at age 47... His playing partners in the final pairing, Sharma and Hatton, had ages combined to equal Mickelson.. Sharma was 21 years old and Hatton 26.. Mickelson is 47.. The sudden death playoff was against a 24 year old, Justin Thomas, who may be one of the best in the world right now... NONE OF THOSE GUYS WERE BORN YET when Mickelson won his first PGA title in 1991. The way Mickelson is playing, he could win even more events... For him, its about keeping the ball in play off the tee and the approach as well as making those clutch putts. Mickelson is one of the 'old men' of the game now but it did my heart so good to see him win the tournament this past weekend.
If there are 2 things in golf I wished to have seen, it would have been to see Jack Nicklaus at his best vs. Tiger Woods at his best. The other would have been to see the 2 greatest scramblers in golf play against one another, the late Seve Ballesteros vs. Phil Mickelson... I would have paid big bucks to see either. Congrats to Lefty and the hope of many more PGA titles!!!
The title of this thread has to be a STAND ALONE statement as there are a ton of "yeh but" statements made to support Nicklaus... Nicklaus basically played a part time PGA TOUR schedule after his first 10-15 years on tour, emphasizing the majors... Nicklaus had his golf course design business ramping up in the late 1970's where he wanted his 'stamp' on all courses carrying his name on design credit. Took a lot of his time away from playing.. Plus he had his MacGregor line of "GOLDEN BEAR" golf equipment and apparel.. Plus, help raise his kids a bit and attend different events of his kids. Charity work as well so Nicklaus was mega busy outside of golf so if he devoted and focused his time on the PGA tour even more than he did, there is no telling how many more wins he would have accumulated. His 46 top-3 finishes at major tournaments is so unbelievable that it may never be broken, especially with so many young and talented players entering the tour today. Nicklaus also battled hip and some back problems so who knows how that affected him during the later years. Still this year at Augusta is the 20 year anniversary of Jack making a run in the 1998 Masters only to finish 6th at age 58.
But for Mickelson, his span of PGA tour wins is still longer than Nicklaus' was and I am not sure Lefty is done... He played the WGC in Mexico City this weekend and won at age 47... His playing partners in the final pairing, Sharma and Hatton, had ages combined to equal Mickelson.. Sharma was 21 years old and Hatton 26.. Mickelson is 47.. The sudden death playoff was against a 24 year old, Justin Thomas, who may be one of the best in the world right now... NONE OF THOSE GUYS WERE BORN YET when Mickelson won his first PGA title in 1991. The way Mickelson is playing, he could win even more events... For him, its about keeping the ball in play off the tee and the approach as well as making those clutch putts. Mickelson is one of the 'old men' of the game now but it did my heart so good to see him win the tournament this past weekend.
If there are 2 things in golf I wished to have seen, it would have been to see Jack Nicklaus at his best vs. Tiger Woods at his best. The other would have been to see the 2 greatest scramblers in golf play against one another, the late Seve Ballesteros vs. Phil Mickelson... I would have paid big bucks to see either. Congrats to Lefty and the hope of many more PGA titles!!!
Last edited:
