Mickelson’s 26-year Top-50 run comes to an end

World No 1 Brooks Koepka was more than likely still wearing nappies when Phil Mickelson first entered the top 50 players in the world.

Koepka was just three when Mickelson began a phenomenal run in the world’s top 50, that came to an end recently when the American star finally dropped out of that elite group.

Mickelson secured his first PGA Tour title in five years at the 2018 WGC-Mexico (Credit: PGA Tour)

Now 49-years-old and about to give the Champions Tour stars some headaches, ‘Lefty’ has spent 1353 weeks in the top 50, which is the longest consecutive streak by any player since the rankings began in 1986.

Ever the optimist, Mickelson commented: “It was a good run, but I’ll be back.”

While he hasn’t won an event since February, his record is simply amazing with 44 PGA Tour titles to his credit.

And here’s a trivia question that would stump a lot of golf experts: How high has Mickelson climbed in the rankings.

Well, he’s never made it to the top…No. 2 was as high as he has been and we can safely say that Tiger Woods can take the blame for keeping Mickelson from ever making it to No. 1.

Yet he has something – or rather three somethings, Green Jackets, that Greg Norman would love to own. Phil has won the US Masters three times and also added a US PGA Championship and a British Open to his resume.

The US Open continues to elude him , he has finished runner-up six times and may have to hope for an invitation from the USGA if he wants to chase next year’s US Open…or maybe just sneak back into that top 50, which guarantees him a spot in the field.

With Mickelson dropping out of the top 50, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy can now lay claim to the current longest ‘active’ streak – he’s been ranked in the top 50 in the world for a mere 573 weeks.