THE list of perks that come with winning the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship continue to flow in for Phil Mickelson.
The newly-minted oldest major winner in history vaulted 83 spots to No. 32 in the Official World Golf Rankings and 36 spots to No. 16 in the United States Ryder Cup team rankings on Monday.
Being inside the top 50 in the world is the threshold for entry into all the premier tournaments, including majors and World Golf Championship events. Mickelson fell out of the top 50 in November 2019 for the first time in 26 years, a record streak of 1,353 weeks.
He briefly returned to the top 50, but by this March, he had fallen outside of the top 100 for the first time in 28 years, breaking another record streak of 1,425 weeks.
Mickelson dropped as low as 116th entering the PGA Championship, where he was considered an extreme longshot, having failed to post a top-20 finish in his previous 17 worldwide starts outside of the Champions tour.
With his victory at the PGA, the 50-year-old also launched himself back into the Ryder Cup conversation.
At No. 16, he is still unlikely to earn one of the top six automatic spots. However, Steve Stricker will also have six captain’s picks, and Mickelson has played on every US Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup team since 1994. — Reuters