Phil Mickelson out of OWGR top 25 for first time in 20 years
Phil Mickelson will find himself later on Monday in a position he hasn’t been since 1995.
When the new Official World Golf Ranking is released after the Monday finish to the Sanderson Farms Championship, Mickelson will drop out of the top 25. It ends a remarkable run for Mickelson, who began this run in the top 25 after a T-4 finish in the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in the Hamptons. Mickelson fell out of the top 25 the week prior thanks to a missed cut at the Kemper Open.
Mickelson ended 2014 at No. 14 in the world and was most recently in the top 10 in the ranking after a runner-up finish at the 2014 PGA Champonship.
The five-time major winner, who fired Butch Harmon as his swing coach last week after an eight-year relationship, has never been the top-ranked player in the world, although he has been in position to take the top spot dozens of times through his career. However, Mickelson does hold the record for the most weeks at No. 2 in the OWGR, which began in 1986. Mickelson has been the second-best golfer in the world for 270 weeks.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
