Phil Mickelson sees another amazing, possibly unbreakable World Ranking record snapped

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Phil Mickelson didn’t play in last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, but he still managed to draw attention in the aftermath. After the close call of another ageing tour pro, Lee Westwood, at Bay Hill, it was Mickelson who narrowly got bumped from a status he’s enjoyed for almost his entire career.

By the time the numbers were crunched, Lefty was left out of the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since 1993. And it’s the first time he’s ever fallen out of that category as he dropped from 98th to 101st on the updated list that officially came out overnight.

As Twitter OWGR guru Nosferatu first pointed out, Mickelson has spent a staggering 1,425 weeks inside the top 100. It’s a record that may never be broken, similar to Mickelson’s run of 1,353 consecutive weeks of being ranked in the top 50, which ended in November 2019.

To put the length of Mickelson’s latest streak in perspective, Nosferatu points out that four of the current top six in the world ranking weren’t even born when it started.

Amazing.

It should be noted that Mickelson doesn’t receive World Ranking points for PGA Tour Champions events. Upon turning 50 last June, Mickelson won his first two starts on the senior circuit and finished T-20 in his third start at the Cologuard Classic earlier this month.

Mickelson’s lone top-10 on the PGA Tour in the past year was a runner-up at the WGC–FedEx St Jude Invitational in August. His next best finish in that span was a T-24 at the Travelers Championship.

Mickelson’s top-100 streak started with a win at the 1993 International – his third career PGA Tour title – that moved him from 101st to 65th. (In another sign of just how long ago that is, The International is a tournament that has been defunct for 14 years!)

Lefty’s 44th and most recent PGA Tour win came at the 2019 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.