Phil And The Aviators Take Branson By Storm!

Phil Mickelson’s eye-opening—if you could see behind the aviators—22-under-par PGA Tour Champions debut outside Branson was impressive. That’s even if the competitive setting more closely resembled afternoon cart games at The Bridges than big boy golf, but Mickelson proved he’s still got something special during a four-stroke win over Tim Petrovic.

Jay Busbee with this on the win and Tiger’s assessment…or was it a dig?

Look, it’s easy to laugh off Mickelson’s achievement as an unfair matchup, the golf equivalent of LeBron James rolling over a neighborhood pickup basketball game. Mickelson’s odds to win the tournament were as low as +220 (bet $100 to win $220); that’s getting in the neighborhood of prime Tiger right there.

Woods himself knows just how much of an advantage Mickelson currently owns. “He was already one of the longest hitters out here [on the PGA Tour],” Woods said Wednesday at the BMW Championship, “and now he goes to where he’s going to pick up a huge advantage off the tee ... There’s no reason why he can’t win every event he plays out there. He’s got such a big advantage over the rest of the field just with sheer length.”

That’s right, he could win every week “out there”!

More importantly, buried lede here: Phil is putting with a blade and making putts. I feel the Golf Gods at work here. The entire bag of Callaways for Mickelson including a nice shot of his old school putter.

Also, the cart driving was magnificent! This man has a Ryder Cup captaincy in his future!

Lefty is out. ✌️🏆 pic.twitter.com/HvuzSbnq9c

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) August 27, 2020

Phil cruising. pic.twitter.com/WJsOEb6iC5

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) August 26, 2020

Oh, and the trophy is…sizeable.

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One start. One win. 🏆

A post shared by PGA TOUR Champions (@pgatourchampions) on Aug 26, 2020 at 12:57pm PDT