Phil Mickelson's Record Run In World's Top 100 Is Over

The charismatic left-hander had occupied a top-100 place in the Official World Golf Rankings for more than 27 years

Phil Mickelson drops out of world's top 100

The charismatic left-hander had occupied a top-100 place in the Official World Golf Rankings for more than 27 years

Phil Mickelson Drops Out Of World's Top 100

After opting not to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Phil Mickelson has fallen out of the world’s top 100 for the first time since 1993.

The 50-year-old winner of 44 PGA Tour events started the year ranked 66th but now finds himself as the World No. 101 after a poor run of form that includes two missed cuts in his last four starts.

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Mickelson first entered the rankings back in 1990 when he claimed a top-20 finish at the Northern Telecom Tucson Open as an amateur.

That result put him 540th in the world and he made his first appearance in the top 100 when he won the International in August of 1993.

His run lasted a total of 1,425 weeks, a record that will likely never be broken, and the charismatic left-hander will no doubt already have his sights set on returning to the upper echelons of the game as soon as possible.

Despite the impressive benchmark, the five-time major winner never held the World No. 1 spot, spending an agonising 270 weeks playing second fiddle to his long-time rival Tiger Woods.

Now 50, Mickelson is eligible to ply his trade on the PGA Tour Champions as well as the main tour and has grasped the opportunity to feel like the young guy again.

Although there are no ranking points available, Mickelson has picked up an impressive two wins from his three Champions Tour starts and will likely add more of these events to his schedule as time goes on.

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However, it’s back to the PGA Tour for the Players Championship this week, an event he has fond memories of having tasted success in 2007.

He’ll be hoping to draw on that positive experience and claim a surprise victory and first since the 2019 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Andrew Wright
Staff Writer

A lifelong golf fan, Andy graduated in 2019 with a degree in Sports Journalism and got his first role in the industry as the Instruction Editor for National Club Golfer. From there, he went on to enjoy a spell freelancing for Stats Perform producing football reports, and then for RacingNews365 covering Formula 1. However, he couldn't turn down the opportunity to get back into the sport he grew up watching and playing and now covers a mixture of equipment, instruction and news for Golf Monthly's website and print title.


Andy took up the game at the age of seven and even harboured ambitions of a career in the professional ranks for a spell. That didn’t pan out, but he still enjoys his weekend golf at Royal Troon and holds a scratch handicap. As a side note, he's made five holes-in-one and could quite possibly be Retief Goosen’s biggest fan.


As well as the above, some of Andy's work has featured on websites such as goal.com, dailyrecord.co.uk, and theopen.com.


What's in Andy's bag?

Driver: Callaway Mavrik Sub-Zero (9°)

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (15°)

Driving iron: Titleist U500 (17°)

Irons: Callaway Apex Pro '19 (4-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (50°, 54° and 58°)

Putter: TaylorMade Spider X

Ball: TaylorMade TP5x