Phil Mickelson called out for crazy career claim

Phil Mickelson recently revealed a statistic about his career that has left fans and pundits gobsmacked.

06 Feb 2024

Phil Mickelson's career has been littered with awe-inspiring moments, from his show-stopping Masters win in 2004, to becoming the oldest-ever major champion when he won the PGA Championship in 2021 at the age of 50.

While both are undoubtedly impressive achievements, one stat Mickelson recently revealed in an interview with his LIV Golf team, the HyFlyers, might top them both.

In a quick-fire question and answer session, Mickelson was quizzed on his favourite course, biggest inspiration and a string of other trivial topics before getting to the number of hole-in-ones he's had in his life.

The answer to that question was a staggering 47!

To put into context just how crazy that figure is, the odds of an average golfer getting a hole-in-one are roughly 12,500 to 1 or 0.01%.

For professional players, those odds do get better, with the likelihood of an ace rising to 0.04%.

It's fair to say Mickelson is beating the bookies with his impressive tally.

Robert Allenby and Hal Sutton currently hold the record for most hole-in-ones on the PGA Tour with ten a piece, while Mickelson sits further back with five recorded on the US circuit.

On the DP World Tour, Miguel Angel Jimenez holds the record, also having made 10.

Mickelson's skill with his irons and wedges is well documented, and despite the fact that it's impossible for us to verify all 47 of his aces, we're going to have to take his word as gospel on this one.

And although we choose to believe him, that hasn't stopped fans from speculating about the validity of his claim.

Here's how some X users reacted:

In the same interview, Mickelson also produced another curveball for his fans, claiming that his perfect golf shot is a "post apogetical fade."

We're as stumped as you on this one.

A quick dictionary search has told us that 'apogetical' isn't actually a word, in which case his response may have been misheard; however, if it were intended to be apologetical, which seems like the logical correction, then we would love to sit down with Phil to discuss what precisely a post apology fade looks like.

Could it be a shot you hit after almost cleaning out a spectator with your tee shot? Who knows. Perhaps Mickelson will clarify in one of his masterclass Instagram videos in the coming weeks. We will be watching closely.