Phil Mickelson is officially the 2021 PGA Championship winner, which comes with quite the bounty. Here are all the spoils Lefty gets for his big-time win.
Money
Mickelson’s winner’s check from a week’s work at the Ocean Course is the biggest of his career. The win netted him $2.16 million. Not a bad few days at the office.
Hardware
Mickelson is going to need to find a spot on his mantle for one memento. In addition to the sizable winner’s check, the 50-year-old is also taking home the Wanamaker Trophy for the second time. Mickelson will be in possession of the massive hunk of metal, stands two and a half feet tall and weighs over 27 pounds, for the next year, at which point he will return the trophy in exchange for a smaller replica.
Exemptions
Perhaps the most important perks of Mickelson’s win are the exemptions that come with it. He’s now exempt into the U.S. Open for the next five years, which is huge for a 50-year-old who’s splitting time between the PGA and Champions Tours. (A win also nets a lifetime exemption into the PGA Championship, along with five years of exemptions into the Masters and Open Championship as well, but as a former champ of all three, he already owns lifetime exemptions into those championships.) Now, Mickelson has guaranteed (at least) five more chances at winning his crown jewel.
Points
Points may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of perks of winning a major, but they still carry some importance. Mickelson earned 600 points in the FedEx Cup, which will go a long way toward qualifying for the Tour Championship and getting a crack at the $15 million bonus.
Mickelson also earned 4,320 points in the Ryder Cup standings, which vaulted him to 16th on the table. While it’s unlikely he will earn an automatic qualifying spot on this fall’s Ryder Cup team, the win at the Ocean Course puts Lefty in firm consideration for one of the captain’s picks to play at Whistling Straits.
Prestige
The most difficult thing to quantify about Mickelson’s win is how it will affect his legacy. He was always known as an all-time great, but after becoming the oldest major winner of all time, his status in the history of the game is only amplified. It’s impossible to say how the win will be remember in the years to come, but one thing is certain — it won’t soon be forgotten.
