Phil Mickelson said he would “cherish forever” his extraordinary victory in the US PGA Championship after becoming the oldest major champion in history.
Mickelson held his nerve during a pulsating final round at Kiawah Island to win his sixth major title, 16 years on from lifting the Wanamaker Trophy for the first time.
The 50-year-old carded a closing 73 amid euphoric and somewhat chaotic scenes around the 18th green, finishing six under par and two shots ahead of Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen.
“I believed I had the ability to do it, I knew I could and I’ve been very frustrated,” said Mickelson, who had started the week ranked 115th in the world and a 280/1 outsider.
“With the help of my wife Amy, my brother Tim and my coach Andrew Getson, I’ve been able to get back to playing golf at the highest level and it’s so fulfilling and rewarding and this is a moment I will cherish forever.
“This is just an incredible feeling because I just believed that it was possible, but yet everything was saying it wasn’t. I hope that others find that inspiration.
“It might take a little extra work, a little bit harder effort to maintain physically or maintain the skills, but gosh is it worth it in the end, and I’m so appreciative to be holding this Wanamaker Trophy.”
Mickelson was mobbed by spectators after hitting a superb approach to the 18th and needed assistance from security guards to force his way on to the green.
He described the experience as “slightly unnerving, but exceptionally awesome,” but playing partner Koepka was not so amused.
“It would have been cool if I didn’t have a knee injury and got dinged a few times in the knee in that crowd because no one really gave a s***,” said Koepka, who had surgery to deal with a knee cap dislocation and ligament damage on March 16.
“It’s cool for Phil, but getting dinged a few times isn’t exactly my idea of fun.
“I don’t think anybody really understands until actually you’re coming out of surgery how… I mean, even when I was doing rehab and there’s five people kind of standing by your knee, you get a little skittish.”
Oosthuizen, who had already finished second in all four majors before this week, said: “I feel like I’m playing my heart out to get a second major, and I do know I have the game to do it. This was close.
“My game wasn’t great on the weekend so I just need to work harder on it to get myself in contention again.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here