The PGA of America recently listed Phil Mickelson in the field for next week’s 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. “I’m hoping to play the rest of the year after that but I honestly don’t know.” It is a statement that raises more questions than it answers, and it extends what has become a deeply concerning year for the 55-year-old.

The PGA Championship is not 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. His record tells the rest of the story, too. He finished T71 in 2020, T58 in 2023, and missed the cut in 2024, but the tournament has always pulled him back. Walking away from that history is not a small thing.

This is now a pattern that has defined Mickelson’s 2026 season. On February 1, he cited 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 tied 48th out of 57 at LIV South Africa, before withdrawing from the Masters in April with a similar statement about a “personal health matter.” His only competitive appearance this season was in March’s LIV South Africa, where he finished at 42.

LIV 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 standings table, a reflection of just how much his absence has affected the side.

Well, this isn’t the first time the golfer has prioritized his family. Back in 2016, he missed the U.S. Open to attend his daughter Amanda’s high school graduation. Although that was only a one-week break, this one isn’t.

Mickelson has kept the specific details of the health matter private throughout. He has not revealed if it is about himself, Amy, or another family member, though he has publicly supported his wife and mother through cancer battles before.

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 sources 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.

And honestly, the demand is not there from either side. 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.