Phil Mickelson is playing for a major payday and major title come Sunday at the 2021 PGA Championship. Mickelson is the 54-hole leader at seven under and leads Brooks Koepka by one. The Ocean Course winner will take home $2.16 million, although the runner-up still pockets $1.3 million.
For Mickelson, one of the most popular, accomplished and wealthy pro golfers in history, a win would put him at over $94 million in career earnings. Mickelson ranks 2nd on the PGA Tour’s career money leaders list, with $92,451,761 earned prior to this week’s PGA. Tiger Woods leads the list at $120,851,706.
Here are 10 outrageous Phil Mickelson golf gambling stories
Regardless of what happens to Mickelson on Sunday, it’s been a good run for the 50-year-old fan favorite.
In the 2020 edition of Forbes’ Highest-Paid Athletes in the World ranking, which was published in May 2020 and looks at earnings over a 12-month span, Mickelson came in at 25th overall with $40.8 million earned. According to Forbes, he earned $40 million in endorsements and $800,000 in on-course winnings. Forbes also estimates Mickelson’s career money earned from sponsorships over his career to be around $750 million. The site lists Mickelson’s sponsors as Amgen, Callaway Golf, Heineken N.V., Intrepid Financial Partners, KPMG and Rolex, and says Mickelson added endorsement deals with Amstel Light and Melin in 2020. He also had a highly publicized partnership with Mizzen+Main in 2018, in which he’s an equity holder in the company. (In Forbes’ 2020 ranking of the World’s Highest-Paid Celebrities, Mickelson ranked 77th with his $40.8 million total.)
Tiger Woods ranked 8th on Forbes’ Highest-Paid Athletes in the World ranking ($62.3 million) to claim honors of highest-earning golfer, and Rory McIlroy was 14th ($52 million). They were the only golfers ahead of Mickelson.
In 2016, Forbes listed Mickelson’s net worth at $375 million, good for 18th on its list of America’s Wealthiest Celebrities. The website Celebrity Net Worth estimates Mickelson’s career earnings, through winnings and endorsements, at over $800 million, and his net worth at $400 million.
