San Diego native and World Golf Hall of Fame member Phil Mickelson will make his PGA TOUR Champions debut next week at the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National. The 54-hole event will begin Monday in Ridgedale, Missouri.
The Champions tour is a PGA-administered senior golf circuit for players over the age of 50. Mickelson turned 50 on June 16.
After firing a 74-68 in the first two rounds of the Northern Trust Open, Mickelson is outside of the projected cut, thus ending his PGA season. The U.S. Open is next month at Winged Foot, so without any PGA tournaments to play, he needs somewhere to keep his golf game in shape. Enter the Champions Tour.
"Now that I missed the cut and have two weeks off, essentially, I'm hopefully going to go play the Champions event Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday," Mickelson said Friday after his second round. “I feel like coming into this week I’ve been playing really well at home. I was excited to play, I feel like I’ve been playing decent, so I want to play. I really want to play golf, and that will give me a chance to play three competitive rounds.”
The U.S. Open is the only major championship Mickelson has not won. In 2006, he needed par on the 72nd hole at Winged Foot to win, but he made double-bogey to lose by one shot to Geoff Olgivy.
