Phil Mickelson jokingly thanks ‘all the crazies’ as he claims new prize

Phil Mickelson has a lot to celebrate this year.

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Phil Mickelson had a good year in 2021. He did win the PGA Championship, after all, and now, it seems as though he’s adding a new prize to his trophy cabinet: PIP champion.

For those unaware, the PGA Tour’s newly-created PIP — or Player Impact Program — distributes $40 million to the top 10 players who brought the most eyeballs into the sport, which the tour tracks using a variety of different digital metrics.

Exact details of the program have been under fairly tight lock-and-key (though Golf Digest’s Dan Rapaport has some good reporting on it here), as have the standings themselves. That is until this morning, when Phil Mickelson took to Twitter and claimed he had won the prize.

As for Tiger? He finished second, says Lefty.

The combination of hilarious tweeting and a historic major victory, it appears, proved too much to surmount. So in honor of the victory, let’s take a look at Lefty’s 10 most popular tweets over the past year, ranked by favorites.

1. “I’m just curious”

Perhaps a late PIP play, or just a golfer curious for answers, Phil’s recent tweet asking about the Omicron variant was Phil’s most-favorited tweet of 2021.

2. “BRING IT!”

With Tiger back, could we see a re-booted Tiger-Phil match up? Last month, Phil seemed to relish the challenge.

3. “I find this new version of Josh Allen so seductive”

The way into Phil Mickelson’s heart? Dressing like him for Halloween.

4. “Who’s the handsome guy in the back?”

Yes, he did win the PGA.

5. “GoUSA 🇺🇸 “

He wasn’t playing this year, but Phil announcing he would be named vice captain was well-received.

6. “I like Charlie’s recoil better 😂”

To be fair, Charlie does have an amazing recoil. I wonder where he learned it?

7. “PATHETIC”

Fiery Phil was not happy at this recent rule change, and his criticism resonated on Twitter.

8. “Whatever, I won the PGA 😘”

The comeback to end all comebacks.

9. “Happy Thanksgiving everyone.”

Credit to Josh Allen for appearing in not one, but two of Phil’s top 10 tweets.

10. “crushes my heart 😢”

On the bright side, Phil, at least you won the PGA.

Luke Kerr-Dineen

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.