Throughout his career, Phil Mickelson has rarely, if ever, been considered a physical specimen. Phil Mickelson's calves aside, of course.
Frankly, at times, Mickelson has been the butt of jokes about the physical fitness of golfers and challenging whether or not golfers are athletes. Now, at age 49, Mickelson appears to have the best physique of his life.
Phil Mickelson's sister and PGA professional, Tina Mickelson, posted a picture to Twitter on Aug. 20 showing Mickelson in the ocean during a family vacation. Mickelson isn't wearing a shirt, and he looks, frankly, ripped. He's got muscles and stuff that are visible. He doesn't have any kind of gut. He looks like that shirtless doctor in jeans in airplane magazines who's telling you how to stay young forever. (His name is Dr. Jefrey Life, and yes, I googled that.)
Family beach day. Looks like calves are working their way up. 💪🏽🦵🏼 pic.twitter.com/tOnhUXUMlC
— Tina Mickelson (@TinaMickelson) August 21, 2019
The five-time major winner said before the British Open Championship in July that he had undergone some fasting and weight loss in an effort to get in better physical shape. Mickelson said he had lost 15 lbs. in a six-day fast.
"I haven't felt good about myself and the way I've been playing, and so I haven't done anything or wanted to be in public," Mickelson said in a social media post back in July.
He had apparently gotten back to drinking his special coffee concoction that helped drop some pounds. But there's no way you could have convinced us that Mickelson had seemingly transformed his body so quickly.
Who knows what Mickelson's transformation means for his golf game. He's 49 years old, and he wasn't much of a factor in any tournament after February. He deals with psoriatic arthritis. He has tried to keep up his speed to keep pace with the younger guys, and he's been somewhat obsessed with hitting "bombs" off the tee. He's been a national treasure on social media.
There's a lot of Mickelson's plate. But the first step in playing good is feeling good, and if getting into this kind of shape will help him prolong his capability to win on the PGA Tour and maybe one specific major (the US Open), then that's great.
