Phil Mickelson will return to the game after a 21-year absence to ring in the new year.
After becoming the oldest player to ever win a major at the PGA Championship in May, the 51-year-old will take advantage of his invitation to join the winners-only field at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
Despite winning a PGA Tour event every year from 2000 to 2013, Lefty last competed in the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January 2001, 13 months into the new millennium.
“We’re ecstatic to welcome Phil Mickelson back to Kapalua,” said Alex Urban, the event’s executive director, “as his return provides further star power to an incredibly deep and skilled field.”
When the tournament was held at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California, Mickelson won both times. He beat Fred Couples in a playoff in 1994, and he beat Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara by one stroke in 1998.
As O’Meara and Couples have faded into obscurity, and Woods’ glory days appear to be over, Mickelson will look to begin his 31st year on Tour by winning his 46th tournament against today’s stars like Jon Rahm, Colleen Morikawa, Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama, and Bryson DeChambeau, just as he did on Kiawah Island.
