Phil Mickelson celebrates holing a bunker shot on the fifth hole during the final round of the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, SC. May 23, 2021
PGA of America
Kiawah Island
The crowd size may have been limited because of the coronavirus, but the roars were nevertheless deafening Sunday at Kiawah Island Resort’s Ocean Course, pushing the longtime people’s champion on to history.
Phil Mickelson won the 103rd PGA Championship by two shots with a 6-under 282 to become the oldest major champion in history less than a month from his 51st birthday.
Mickelson broke a record that had stood since 1968, when 48-year-old Julius Boros won the PGA Championship, and became the sixth pro golfer to win at least six major titles.
Mickelson needed a police escort to the 18th green to get through a throng that surrounded him after he hit his approach to 16 feet to all but clinch the victory, which is Lefty’s 45th on the PGA Tour.
The vaunted Ocean Course took its toll on the contenders in the final round, as the eight players within four shots of Mickelson’s lead at 7 through three rounds all shot over par.
Sunday’s title is added to Mickeson’s major mantle that already includes three Masters (2004, 2006, 2010), the 2005 PGA Championship and 2013 British Open.
He is a U.S. Open title away from the career Grand Slam, and has six runner-up finishes in the tournament. The 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines outside San Diego begins June 17, a day after Mickelson’s 51st birthday.
Mickelson was once the hard-luck loser and some might say “choker” in major championships. He was winless in his first 46 majors through 2003 with eight top-three finishes.
He was the fifth player age 50 or older since 1900 to hold at least a share of a 54-hole lead at a major, joining Tom Watson (2009 Open Championship at Turnberry, 59 years old), Greg Norman (2008 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, 53), Boros (1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, 53) and Harry Vardon (1920 U.S. Open at Inverness Club, 50).
Mickelson’s two most recent wins had come on the PGA Champions Tour, and he had fallen to 115th in the Official World Golf Ranking entering the week.
Brooks Koepka was trying to make some history of his own Sunday by becoming the first winner of three PGA Championships in four years since the tournament format changed from match play to stroke play in 1958. Jack Nicklaus won three in five years from 1971-75.
But Koepka tied for second with Louis Oosthuizen with a 74 Sunday after beginning the final round a shot out of the lead.
Mickelson and Koepka comprised a heavyweight final pairing, boasting nine major championships between them — Koepka with four since 2017.
A wild ride
It was a wild ride through the first seven holes for Mickelson and Koepka in the final group, with multiple lead changes, five birdies, four bogeys, a double, a hole-out and a missed three-foot putt. Mickelson emerged from the frantic seven-hole stretch with a two-shot lead at 7 under.
Mickelson 3-putted the opening hole from 57 feet for a bogey and Koepka made a 12-footer to take the lead at 7 under with the immediate two-shot swing. Mickelson regained the lead on the par-5 second with a birdie and a double by Koepka, who made a mess of the hole from start to finish.
Koepka pulled within a shot on the third when Mickelson flew the green with a chip shot from 30 yards in the rough for a bogey, but he missed an opportunity to tie for the lead by missing a 3-foot birdie putt.
Mickelson holed out for birdie from a greenside bunker on the fifth to again open up a two-shot advantage, but he bogeyed the sixth and Koepka hit a wedge to 3 feet for birdie to tie for the lead. Mickelson holed a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-5 seventh and Koepka bogeyed the hole to fall two behind.
That was as close as he would get for the remainder of the round, as Koepka joined every other contender in succumbing to the relentless Ocean Course layout and seaside breeze and falling well off Mickelson’s lead, which was at 8 under after Mickelson birdied the 10th hole.
Kevin Streelman was one shot back following a pair of opening birdies but made four bogeys before his next birdie.
Gary Woodland was two shots back at 4 under after birdies on two of his first three holes but played a stretch of eight holes 7-over par.
Oosthuizen birdied the 12th to pull within three shots of the lead at 5 under, where he began the final round, but hit a ball in the water on the 13th to make a double bogey and fall five shots back.
Mickelson made it harder on himself with a pair of bogeys on holes 13 and 14 to fall to 6 under, and a bogey on the 17th following a birdie on 16, though he limited the damage on 13 after hitting his approach to the green into the water.
The Ocean Course, the longest in major championship history on the scorecard at 7,876 yards, played 7,557 yards Sunday, the shortest of the week. It was set up at 7,660 on Thursday, 7,655 on Friday and 7,700 on Saturday.and this
The 14 players with six major titles
Jack Nicklaus 18
Tiger Woods 15
Walter Hagen 11
Ben Hogan 9
Gary Player 9
Tom Watson 8
Harry Vardon 7
Bobby Jones 7
Gene Sarazen 7
Sam Snead 7
Arnold Palmer 7
Lee Trevino 6
Nick Faldo 6
Phil Mickelson 6
Oldest players to win a major
- Phil Mickelson: 2021 PGA Championship, 50 years, 11 months, 7 days
- Julius Boros: 1968 PGA Championship, 48 years, 4 months, 18 days
- Jerry Barber: 1961 PGA Championship, 45 Years, 3 months, 6 days
- Lee Trevino: 1984 PGA Championship, 44 years, 8 months, 18 days
- Roberto de Vicenzo: 1967 British Open, 44 years, 93 days
- Ted Ray: 1920 U.S. Open, 43 years, 4 months, 16 days
