No Recognition for Phil Mickelson After Earning Rare Feat That Jack Nicklaus Won a Grand Prize for

“A 55-year-old hit the longest drive in the entire tournament…That’s what I care about,” said Phil Mickelson, reflecting on his 2025 Open Championship result. Tied for 56th place, he has very little regret about not winning the championship. For him, his monstrous 409 yards on the drive is a bigger achievement. “It’s about hitting bombs.” Still, he admits he’d be a little happier if he’d gotten a keepsake like Jack Nicklaus did back in the ’60s.

“409 yards, the longest in the field…I walk away feeling, you know, kind of like the winner. I don’t know about the Claret Jug, but I still feel like a winner,” revealed Mickelson, speaking with Andrew Santino on No Bad Lies, unable to hide his pride. Now, honestly, this might come across as a little absurd, as it did to Santion, but the six-time major champion caught the disbelief in his eyes and leaned in with a story, “So, you think like you think I’m kidding. Okay, let me tell you something.”

Phil Mickelson recalled an incident with Jack Nicklaus years ago that happened during a dinner after the Presidents Cup. When the latter was emptying his pockets at the tables, Mickleson noticed, among the loose change and keys, a gold money clip. “I recognize it. It’s from the PGA Championship. Now, he’s won the PGA, I think, like five times? I recognize it because I had won it.” Curious, he asked Nicklaus what year it was from. To his surprise, Nicklaus said it wasn’t from a major victory at all. “The PGA used to run the long drive championship back in the 60s, and he said, ‘They were taking bets in the locker room, and so and so was going to beat me, and I hit it 347 yards and a foot, and I beat them by 12 yards.’”

The event in question was the 1963 PGA Championship Long Drive Competition, held at the Dallas Athletic Club in Texas. Players attempt to hit the golf ball as far as possible, usually on a single shot, onto a designated grid. The golfer who hits the farthest drive within the boundaries wins. It was during one of these contests, when Nicklaus launched a drive measuring 341 yards, 17 inches using a persimmon-headed driver and a wound golf ball — an impressive feat given the equipment of the era. The money he won from those bets, he kept as a special, personal badge of honor on his PGA Championship money clip, something which caught Mickelson’s eye.

“So, let’s not kid ourselves. It’s the long drive,” he joked that maybe he should get a keepsake too — a money clip where he can keep his money won from hitting the 409-yard drive, which was 20% longer than the one Nicklaus made. Also notably, Nicklaus was 23 years old when he made that drive, while Mickelson’s came at the age of 55. More than double Nicklaus’s age. What’s also interesting is, this is not the first time Mickelson has made such an exceptional drive. In the 2013 WGC-Cadillac Championship, he had a 450-yard drive on the par-4 17th hole. This made the ball land on a cart patch and ricocheted toward the green, from where he famously played his approach shot directly off the cart path and made a birdie.

To put into perspective the significance of Mickelson’s drive shot, one should know the official world record for the longest drive. This accolade is held by Mike Austin, who at the age of 64 made a 515-yard during the US National Seniors Open Championship in 1974. 

So maybe the 6-time major champion does deserve a keepsake in that regard. Unfortunately, no one made a bet on him this time. But his long drive is “All that matters,” to Phil Mickelson. And while this record is stunning, there are a few other achievements Mickelson made during his run at this year’s Open Championship.

How Phil Mickelson shone at The Open Championship

The stellar 409 yards wasn’t the only impressive feat achieved by Phil Mickelson at the 2025 Open Championship. He reached a significant milestone in his career by surpassing Gary Player‘s record for cuts (102) made in men’s major championships. With his cut at the Open, Mickelson now has 103 cuts, moving into sole possession of second place on the all-time list. He is behind only Jack Nicklaus, who made 131. The achievement came in his 127th major start, tying him with Raymond Floyd for the fifth-most appearances in a major, while Nicklaus still leads with 164.

Mickelson’s performance at Royal Portrush also marked his 21st made cut in 30 Open Championship appearances, highlighting his enduring skill on links courses. His first-round score of 70 (-1) was his best Open Championship opening round since 2018. It features flashes of his classic style, including a spectacular hole-out from a bunker for par. Despite these highlights, it was also his first sub-par major round since 2023, as he missed the cut in his three other major starts of the 2025 season.