"My career, truthfully, is toward its end" - Phil Mickelson drops big retirement clue

Phil Mickelson has had a 32-year career in professional golf, and to that time more than a decade can be added if you count his junior and amateur stints. It has been a highly successful career, including 45 PGA Tour victories and six Major titles.

However, the passage of time is inexorable and the first to recognize this is Phil Mickelson himself. At 53 years old, he has already shown signs of thinking about the next stage of his career.

"I’m 53 now and my career, you know, if I’m being truthful it’s toward its end," Phil Mickelson said in an interview for Bloomberg TV. "Now, I would like to help others find the same enjoyment and fulfillment that the game of golf has provided me."

"There's so many great things about the game of golf and I would love others to experience those things."

This is not the first time Mickelson has mentioned the possibility of retirement. He recently stated that should he win the upcoming U.S. Open, it would mark the end of his professional golf career.

The U.S. Open is the only title Mickelson needs to complete a career Grand Slam. "Lefty" has finished runner-up six times in 32 appearances.

Phil Mickelson began his professional career in 1992 after a very successful amateur stage. His entry to the PGA Tour was expeditious as he had won the 1991 Northern Telecom Open, which gave him two years of exemption.

Since then, "Lefty" played in the main American circuit until 2022 as one of its main stars. In 2021, he won his sixth Major championship by taking the PGA Championship title.

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Phil Mickelson about LIV Golf: "The quality of the players will continue to get better"

During his interview with Bloomberg TV, Phil Mickelson also shared his thoughts on the future of LIV Golf. According to Mickelson, the breakaway league will continue to grow and reach new locations.

"I think there's a lot of things that are going to transpire over the next five or ten years," Mickelson said. "I'm very bullish and excited about what that means for LIV Golf."

"But there's also a lot of uncertainty," he added. "I think the things that I do know is the quality of the players will continue to get better each year. I think that the ability and the sites that we move throughout the world will continue to excite players and excite fans."

"We'll be going to more countries outside of the United States that really are starving for world-class professional golf, and we'll have a lot more receptions like we had at Adelaide."

Mickelson has played 26 individual tournaments in LIV Golf with only three top 10s. His best result so far has been an eighth-place finish at the 2022 LIV Golf Chicago.

Mickelson's best result in that period overall has been a second-place finish at the Masters in 2023, when he finished four strokes behind his current LIV Golf colleague Jon Rahm.