After he shocked the golf world four years ago by winning the PGA Championship at age 50, Phil Mickelson had a moment of honest self-assessment. “It’s very possible that this is the last tournament I ever win. Like if I’m being realistic,” Mickelson said on that triumphant Sunday at Kiawah Island.

Mickelson hasn’t won since, and while he wasn’t eager to reflect Wednesday on a career that includes six major titles and just as many famous near-misses, he indicated his competitive future is limited.

He said he wants to help his teammates on LIV’s HyFlyers squad and would step away if he’s no longer doing that.

“I’m also going to be 55 in a couple weeks, so I want to be realistic there, too. I want this team to succeed. I don’t want to hold it back,” Mickelson said. “If I’m holding it back, then it’s time for me to move on and get somebody else in here.”

Mickelson also acknowledged the possibility that Oakmont will be his last U.S. Open. He has a record six runner-up finishes at the national championship, the only major he hasn’t won.

“There’s a high likelihood that it will be,” Mickelson said, “but I haven’t really thought about it too much.” 

The USGA gave Mickelson a special exemption to the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, which he ultimately didn’t need because he won at Kiawah a month earlier. Nonetheless, the U.S. Open historically does not grant more than one special exemption to any player, and Mickelson has missed the past three U.S. Open cuts. He remains exempt for the other three majors as a past champion.

Mickelson has won six major tournaments in his professional career, which began all the way back in 1992. He won the Masters in 2004, 2006 and 2010, the PGA Championship in 2005 and 2021 and The Open Championship in 2013, but has yet to win the U.S. Open. 

“Lefty” has finished second at the U.S. Open on six occasions: 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2013. Mickelson has been attempting to finish off the last leg of the grand slam since 2014, following his victory at The Open the year prior.

The U.S. Open will be played from June 12 through June 15 at Oakmont Country Club.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Scottie Scheffler never lost the lead and never gave anyone much of a chance down the stretch Sunday in another relentless performance, closing with a 2-under 70 for a four-shot victory to join Tiger Woods as the only repeat winners of the Memorial.

Slowed by hand surgery at the start of the year from a freak accident, Scheffler appears to be in full stride with one major already in the bag and another around the corner at the U.S. Open.

“It’s always a hard week,” said Scheffler, who finished at 10-under 278. “We battled really hard on the weekend. Overall it was a great week.”

On one of the tougher PGA Tour tests of the year, Scheffler made one bogey over the final 40 holes at Muirfield Village.

“Well, you did it again,” tournament host Jack Nicklaus told him while walking off the green.

Ben Griffin tried to make it interesting at the end with a 12-foot eagle on the par-5 15th and a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th to close within two shots with two to play. Scheffler, however, doesn’t make mistakes. Griffin made double bogey on the 17th.

Griffin made a 4-foot par on the 18th for a 73 to finish alone in second, worth $2.2 million, more than what he earned when he won at Colonial last week.

Sepp Straka (70) finished another shot back.

“You know Scottie’s probably going to play a good round of golf,” Straka said. “The guy’s relentless. He loves competition, and he doesn’t like giving up shots. But it’s one of those courses where it can always happen, so you got to be prepared for it. I felt like I gave myself a lot of chances to kind of make a push.”

Scheffler has now won three times in his last four starts — the exception was Colonial, a tie for fourth the week after winning the PGA Championship — and expanded his margin at No. 1 in the world to levels not seen since Woods in his peak years.

Woods is a five-time winner at Memorial who won three straight from 1999 through 2001. No one had repeated at Muirfield Village since then until Scheffler.

His performances lately look a lot more like Nicklaus the way he wears down the field by rarely getting out of position.

Rickie Fowler had his first top 10 of the year at just the right time.

He made par on the 18th to tie for seventh, earning him a spot in the British Open. Fowler tied with Brandt Snedeker at 1-under 287, but gets the one Open exemption available based on a higher world ranking — Fowler at No. 124, Snedeker at No. 430.

“That’s one I’ve wanted on the schedule,” said Fowler, who faces a 36-hole qualifier for the U.S. Open on Monday.

Both received sponsor exemptions to the Memorial, a signature event on the PGA Tour.

For Scheffler, it was his fifth victory in a $20 million signature event in the last two years. This one looked inevitable, but only after a quick development early on the back nine.

Scheffler ended 31 holes without a bogey at tough Muirfield Village on the 10th hole, dropping his lead to one shot. Griffin had 4 feet for birdie on the par-5 11th. Scheffler made his 15-foot birdie putt and Griffin missed.

Griffin bogeyed the next two holes, and just like that, Scheffler was four shots ahead. That’s how it was at the PGA Championship — tight one minute, a blowout the next, and the sweetest walk toward the 18th green with victory secure.

This one ended in a handshake with Nicklaus, who had said earlier in the week of Scheffler, “He plays a lot like I did.”

Nicklaus said he was all about fairways and greens, having plenty of chances and making enough of them to post a score. That’s the Scheffler way, too, even if it didn’t always look that way at the start of the final round.

With mud on the golf ball in the first fairway, too much spin on short irons on the next few holes, Scheffler didn’t have a birdie putt until the fifth hole. He saved par seven times in the final round, including the final hole.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Scottie Scheffler

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Tiger Woods needs to make room on his trophy shelf for son Charlie.

The 16-year-old finished with a three-round score of 15-under 201 at the Team TaylorMade Invitational on Wednesday in winning his first American Junior Golf Association event at the Streamsong Resort Black Course. Woods began the day tied at 9-under 135 and finished with a final round of 6-under 66 to top a 71-player field that included four of the top-five ranked AJGA’s players.

Woods’ final round featured eight birdies and two bogeys, and he closed with four straight pars. He won the event by three strokes ahead of a three-way tie between fifth-ranked player Luke Colton, Willie Gordon and Phillip Dunham.

Woods opened the tournament with a first-round score of 70 and followed with a 65 on Tuesday. He was competing in just his fifth AJGA event, with his previous best finish a tie for 25th at the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley in March.

Woods already counted several wins on his resume, with his first coming in the 14-15-year-old category at the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour’s Major Championship in June 2023. Later that year, he won the Last Chance Regional golf tournament.

Last summer, he qualified to compete at the U.S. Junior Amateur but failed to make the cut.

Reporting by The Associated Press. 

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