{"id":1632,"date":"2021-06-02T20:21:14","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T20:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-583903-1890774.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=1632"},"modified":"2021-06-22T13:56:50","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T13:56:50","slug":"mickelson-becomes-oldest-golfer-to-win-a-major","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/2021\/06\/02\/mickelson-becomes-oldest-golfer-to-win-a-major\/","title":{"rendered":"Mickelson Becomes Oldest Golfer to Win a Major"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At 50, most professional athletes are retired. In fact at 50, most athletes have been retired for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Golf, of course, is different. Golfers routinely play into their 40s, and then at 50, they become eligible for the Champions Tour. A golf career never really dies.<\/p>\n<p>So maybe it doesn\u2019t sound all that impressive that 50-year-old Phil Mickelson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theringer.com\/2021\/5\/23\/22450565\/phil-mickelson-wins-pga-championship-oldest-winner-kiawah\"><strong>won the PGA Championship<\/strong><\/a> on May 23. But consider that, of the top 160 earners on the PGA Tour this year, just two &#8212; Mickelson and Steve Stricker &#8212; are older than 50. Also, consider that Mickelson hasn\u2019t won a Major Championship since 2013. Golfers on the tour might compete into their 40s and 50s, but it\u2019s rare that they\u2019re competitive.<\/p>\n<p>And Mickelson didn\u2019t just stumble into a victory. As he approached 50, he decided to commit to a healthier diet; something he had never really done before. \u201cI wasn\u2019t educated,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/instruction\/fitness\/phil-mickelson-weight-loss-2020-us-open\/\"><strong>Phil told GOLF<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in 2020. \u201cI either wasn\u2019t aware or didn\u2019t want to know the things I was putting in my body.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Last time I was at Winged Foot, I was 36 years old with no accountability for my health. ???? This was before <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ForWellness?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ForWellness<\/a>. <br \/>After becoming accountable for my own health, today I return to Winged Foot and let\u2019s just say I look a little \u201cdifferent\u201d ???? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SuYJFwnZdY\">pic.twitter.com\/SuYJFwnZdY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhilMickelson\/status\/1305569469591216128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The change in diet led to significant weight loss, and to a stronger, healthier Phil. And while the physical improvement is important &#8212; he\u2019s hitting the ball as hard and as far as the younger players he\u2019s competing against &#8212; Mickelson has also made some mental adjustments. In fact, he credited his win to the meditation he\u2019s been doing, and to playing 36+ hole practice sessions that he says lengthen his attention span.<\/p>\n<p>Mickelson could have chosen the relative anonymity of the Champions Tour, but it\u2019s clear that he wanted something more. What\u2019s also now clear is that he still has the drive and the work ethic &#8212; at 50 years old, no less &#8212; to keep pace with the best in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; At 50, most professional athletes are retired. In fact at 50, most athletes have been retired for more than a decade. Golf, of course, is different. Golfers routinely play into their 40s, and then at 50, they become eligible for the Champions Tour. A golf career never really dies. So maybe it doesn\u2019t sound [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1632"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2078,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions\/2078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}