The PGA of America recently listed Phil Mickelson in the field for the PGA Championship at Aronimink, giving fans reason to believe Lefty was finally ready to return. That hope lasted less than a day.

In a message shared with Flushing It Golf, Mickelson confirmed he will not be playing at Aronimink. “I wish I could. I can’t, unfortunately,” he said. In fact, the six-time major winner might have already played the last tournament of the season. Expanding further on his future, The Lefty added, “I’m hoping to play the rest of the year after that, but I honestly don’t know.”

The organizers of the PGA Championship confirmed that Max Homa will fill his spot. However, Mickelson’s absence extends what has already been a difficult year. On February 1, he stated that he and his wife, Amy, are stepping away for an undisclosed family health matter, missing the opening two LIV Golf events. He returned briefly in March, finishing T48 at LIV South Africa, before withdrawing from the Masters with a similar statement. This episode isn’t the first time Phil Mickelson has prioritized his family over his career.

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In 2009, when his wife, Amy, was diagnosed with breast cancer, the six-time major champion didn’t hesitate to announce an indefinite break. At that time, Mickelson, the second-ranked golfer in the world, was set to defend his title at the Crowne Plaza Invitational in Fort Worth. He skipped the tournament regardless.

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Mickelson started the 2009 season with two titles and netted two other top-five finishes, but between late May and early August, he teed off in only three tournaments and still bagged a T2 at the U.S. Open. He skipped traveling overseas for the Open Championship to be on Amy’s side. Seven years later, in 2016, he missed the U.S. Open to attend his daughter Amanda’s high school graduation. Not a surprise, considering Phil was ready to skip the 1999 U.S. Open when Amanda was born.

Amy was in the hospital, and Mickelson’s caddie, Jim Mackay, had to carry a beeper. The instruction was clear: regardless of where Phil Mickelson is on the leaderboard, if the beeper goes off, Mackay had to inform the Lefty, and they would dash for the hospital.

Then 29-year-old Phil Mickelson ended up being a runner-up after Payne Stewart drained a 72nd hole birdie putt. Otherwise, they would’ve had to face an 18-hole playoff the next day, when Amanda was born. So Mickelson skipping tournaments for family is hardly a surprise. But many still expected him to tee off at the 2026 PGA Championship because this tournament was never just another event for Mickelson.

He has won it twice, in 2005 and 2021, with his Kiawah Island victory making him the oldest major champion in history at 50. He holds a lifetime exemption from the tournament, and this year marks five years since that iconic win. Mickelson has previously missed the PGA Championship only once since 1993.

In 2022, the veteran golfer pulled himself out of the tournament to avoid controversy in the wake of LIV Golf and Alan Shipnuck’s explosive book on him. Four years later, that storm has died down, yet walking away from that storied history is not a small thing.

Quite expectedly, LIV Golf Virginia this week will also go ahead without him, with Scott Vincent stepping in as his replacement. The HyFlyers, the team Mickelson captains, currently sit 11th in a 13-team table, a reflection of just how much his absence has affected the team.

Mickelson has kept the specific details of the health matter private throughout. But for the moment, his message is just that he doesn’t know when he’ll be back, and that uncertainty is perhaps the most worrying aspect of it all.

The future of LIV is in doubt, so Mickelson’s path forward also seems unclear.

Can Phil Mickelson ever return to the PGA Tour if LIV Golf folds?

Since the Saudi Public Investment Fund pulled out of LIV Golf, everyone has been forced to confront an uncomfortable question, and no one embodies that uncertainty better than Mickelson. CEO Scott O’Neil needs investors for funding LIV Golf in 2027, but with LIV Louisiana already deferred and major financial losses, the outlook is bleak.

Brandel Chamblee was direct about Mickelson’s standing with the PGA Tour. Speaking on Golf Channel, he said Mickelson actively recruited players to join LIV while still a Tour member, attended Tour events to do it, and was central to the lawsuit filed against the PGA Tour. “It would be expensive and tedious,” Chamblee noted when asked about a potential return.

Billy Horschel, pointing to things Mickelson said and did before LIV even launched, said, “I don’t see a road for Phil Mickelson back to the PGA Tour.” Horschel added that Mickelson probably does not want to return to the PGA Tour or even the PGA Tour Champions at this stage.

But it’s good to remember that Mickelson is past his competitive prime, and his relationship with the Tour is beyond repair without a serious public acknowledgment of wrongdoing. That is not his style. Retirement, or content creation, seems far more realistic than any negotiated comeback.