Oldest major winners in golf: Phil Mickelson poised to make history at PGA Championship

Oldest major winners in golf: Phil Mickelson poised to make history at PGA Championship
Phil Mickelson has a shot at history on Sunday.

The five-time major winner will look to add a sixth such victory to his career at the 2021 PGA Championship. A win would also make him golf's oldest major winner in history.

For a time, it looked as if Mickelson would win in a runaway after scoring five birdies through the first 10 holes on moving day. But a bogey and double bogey on Holes 12 and 13, respectively, brought him back to 2 under for the round, 7 under for the tournament and, most importantly, within striking distance of Brooks Koepka (6 under) and Oosthuizen (5 under).

It's up to Mickelson to hold off his challengers, but the crowd will cheer harder for no one at Kiawah Island on Sunday.

MORE: Mickelson's majors timeline: Last major win, PGA Championship history and more

Here's everything you need to know about Mickelson's chance at history heading into play on Sunday:

Oldest golfers to win a major
According to Golf Compendium, 28 golfers aged 40 or older have won a major a total of 38 times: The first recorded player was Old Tom Morris, who won the 1861 British Open at the age of 40. He also has the most such major victories (four), winning The Open Championship in 1861-62, '64 and '67. The most recent was Tiger Woods, who was 43 years, 3 months and 16 days old the day he won the 2019 Masters.

Mickelson is also among those golfers, having won the 2013 Open Championship at 43 years, 1 month and 6 days old — leaving him just months shy of the top 10 oldest golfers to win a major. If he wins the 2021 PGA Championship, he will break the old record by a significant margin.

A few honorable mentions worth noting: Tom Watson, who led much of the final round at the 2009 British Open, would have been the oldest golfer to win a major by far: He was 59 years old at the time, but lost in a four-hole playoff to Stewart Cink. Raymond Floyd, 49, was runner-up at the 1992 Masters; Harry Vardon, 50, finished second in the 1920 U.S. Open.

How old is Phil Mickelson?
As of the final day of play for the 2021 PGA Championship (May 23, 2021), Mickelson is 50 years, 11 months and 8 days old — just shy of his 51st birthday on June 16. The oldest player to win a major is Julius Boros, who won the 1968 PGA Championship at 48 years, 4 months and 18 days old. Should Mickelson finish first at the 2021 PGA Championship, he will beat Boros' record by roughly two years and seven months.

How many majors has Phil Mickelson won?
Mickelson has five major championships to his name, winning all but the U.S. Open (where he has finished second or tied for second six times, most recently in 2013). Mickelson's last major victory was in the 2013 Open Championship.

Below are each of Mickelson's major victories, the year they happened and his age at the time of each win:

Oldest golf major winners in history: 2021 PGA Championship win would put Phil Mickelson atop list
Mickelson would sit alone atop the group should he hold on over the weekend at Kiawah Island
Phil Mickelson will turn 51 years old just one day before the U.S. Open later this summer. He last won a major championship in 2013 with his career-best run coming in the mid-aughts. And yet, on the longest course in major championship history under blistering heat and with winds swirling, he is within reach of claiming history after getting to 5 under on the week Friday to take the lead at the 2021 PGA Championship.

Mickelson is the leader through 54 holes at the 103rd PGA Championship, but he has not come close to locking up another Wanamaker Trophy given how stacked the leaderboard is right behind him. Lefty had as much as a five-shot lead on the field during Moving Day but saw that shrink to a single stroke as the round concluded.

Of the five major champions in the history of the game over age 45, none were as seasoned as Mickelson is now. A win on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island would not only make him the oldest major winner in history, it would make him the oldest by nearly two years.

The current record is held by Julius Boros, who at 48 years, 4 months and 18 days old won the PGA Championship in 1968. The second and third-oldest major champions, Tom Morris Sr. and Jack Nicklaus, were both 46 years old. 

Here is a look at the list of top 10-oldest major winners via PGATour.com. 

Oldest major championship winners in history
Win or not, for Mickelson to be in this position already launches him into exclusive company. The last golfer age 50 or older to be inside the top five through 36 holes at the PGA Championship came in 1999 with Hale Irwin. The last golfer age 50 or older to to hold a lead at any major championship was Fred Couples at the Masters in 2012. And while the latter isn't a guarantee, the former feels like a near-certainty with wind expected to pick up and course conditions likely to become more challenging as the day drags on.

Just don't expect Lefty to celebrate.

"If you were to tell me that, like, Sunday night, I'd really enjoy that," he told Marty Smith on ESPN after learning post-round that a Branden Grace double-bogey on 17 had thrust him into the lead. "Right now, there's a lot of work to do. I'm not sure if it's going to stand after today."

Mickelson is an improbable contender, and betting odds from William Hill Sportsbook all week suggested he'd be an improbable winner -- he's double the age of reigning champion Collin Morikawa, who turned 24 earlier this year! -- but he's squarely in the hunt for a sixth career major championship after weathering tough conditions the first three rounds.

Another day like he's had so far this week, and he very well might pull off what no one his age in the sport has done before.

"The fact is I'm headed to the weekend with an opportunity," he said. "I'm playing really well and having a lot of fun doing it."

Phil Mickelson majors: A brief history of Mickelson’s major titles 
At one point in the 1990s, the thought was that this post would be a very long one. That Phil Mickelson might win double digit majors — he was that good. 

And then in the early 2000s, the thought was this post might never exist! Mickelson turned 30 and had never won a major championship as of 2003. 

In the last 17 years, we’ve been treated to five major victories by Phil Mickelson, three Masters wins, one PGA and one British Open. The U.S. Open, you may know, is his career-long bugaboo, finishing second a record six times. Below is a brief history of all his major wins.

2004 Masters
As mentioned above, Mickelson was sitting on zero career majors despite 22 Tour victories up to that point. Seriously, the career victory total of Dustin Johnson with no majors to Phil’s name. And even though he started with the lead on Sunday in Augusta, it appeared he would go winless again. Mickelson made the turn in 38 that day at Augusta National, trailing Ernie Els for a couple hours. A birdie on 16 evened things up, and with Els on the practice putting green, Mickelson addressed a putt to win the Masters some 80 yards away. 

It dropped! Ernie knew it immediately based on the crowd’s reaction. No playoff today. Mickelson leapt in the air — well, sorta — and embraced his caddie Jim Mackay. The monkey was finally off his back. 

2005 PGA Championship 
Mickelson’s second major victory came by a similar margin, and also with a birdie on 18, though this one ended on a Monday. Due to heavy rain, the final round was actually finished on the Monday after the event. He began the final round with a share of the lead and once again surrendered it with a handful of bogeys in the middle of his round. But he played the final eight holes in one under, and made birdie on the last where Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington both made pars, cementing the one-stroke victory for Lefty. 

2006 Masters
To this point, the ’06 Masters signifies the cleanest final round of Mickelson’s career in major contention. He began the day with a one shot lead and didn’t make a bogey until the 18th, when he was nursing a 4-shot lead. Since the PGA Championship was then contested in August, this was the second major victory in a row for Mickelson, stamping him as the best player in the world not named Tiger Woods. As a matter of fact, this was around the time that Mickelson and Woods had divided golf fans. Were you a Tiger fan or a Phil fan? The major count was no contest, but Mickelson was now a two-time Masters champ.

2010 Masters
One of the most exciting Masters in recent memory was undoubtedly one of the most emotional of Mickelson’s career. He had been on a four-year major drought, but beyond that his wife Amy Mickelson had been battling breast cancer. His mother was battling the disease, too. So when the final putt dropped, Jim Nantz had no other call to make. “That’s a win for the family,” Nantz said. Lefty won by three on a day where he didn’t make a bogey. Lee Westwood, Anthony Kim, even Tiger Woods threatened to snatch the green jacket from him, but none of them played as flawlessly as Mickelson did. 

2013 British Open 
In what is perhaps the most impressive win of Mickelson’s career, Lefty came from out of nowhere to win at Muirfield. He started the day five shots back of Lee Westwood at a course that was playing so difficult that just three players were under par through three rounds. On the back nine, where nearly every player in contention made multiple bogeys, Mickelson played the final eight holes in a ridiculous four under, with birdies on 13 and 14, and then both 17 and 18 to post three under for the championship. No one else got close, and a 43-year-old Mickelson earned a three-shot win from the comforts of the clubhouse. 

In a day and age where Phil Mickelson makes more money starring in advertisements about psoriatic arthritis than playing golf, you’d think his days of winning majors were far behind him.

Well, almost-51-year-old Mickelson can still swing it with the best in the world. He’s now just one day away from becoming the oldest player in PGA Tour history to win a major by over two years. The greatest lefty to ever pick up a golf club had a fantastic first two days at the PGA Championship — 2-under 70 on Day 1, 3-under 69 on Day 2 — and backed them up with a 70 on Day 3 to lead the event by one stroke.

Mickelson had a chance to pull away even further from the crowd. He had a 5-stroke lead heading into hole 12, but that lead would quickly evaporate. Mickelson’s tee shot rolled into the sand. He would bogey that hole — his first bogey in 21 holes. He hit his tee shot into the water on 13 — double bogey. He missed a 4-foot birdie putt and had to settle for par on 14. Things were not looking good. Hole 15 didn’t start any better as Lefty’s tee shot found the rough behind onlooking spectators and ended up under a golf cart. Somehow, Mickelson pulled some magic out of his hat and managed to