Phil Mickelson has dropped the biggest hint yet that he is considering retirement as the six-time Major champion admitted his golf career is "towards its end".
The 53-year-old, who is the most decorated left-handed player in history, has struggled with his game since becoming the oldest winner of a Major at the PGA Championship in 2021.
Other than his miraculous runner-up finish at last year’s Masters Tournament, the 45-time PGA Tour winner has failed to finish inside the top five on any Tour since that heroic victory at Kiawah Island and has the missed the cut in five of his last nine Major outings.
He is just one Major victory away from completing the Grand Slam, with a U.S. Open title eluding him over the years, finishing runner-up on an agonising six occasions.
Mickelson will have another opportunity to win that tournament next month at Pinehurst, but hinted before LIV Golf Singapore that he might not have many opportunities to join Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen as the only players to win all four Major Championships, with retirement on the horizon.
"I’m 53 now and my career, you know, if I’m being truthful it’s toward its end,” Mickelson told Bloomberg TV
“Now, I would like to help others find the same enjoyment and fulfilment that the game of golf has provided me.
"There are moments when you are on a golf course alone and you have that solitude, or you could also be with family and friends having a good time or competing in a club championship or junior event or at the highest level and feeling that competition.
"All of that creates such fulfilment, whether you're practising on your own or with friends. There's so many great things about the game of golf and I would love others to experience those things."
In recent years, Mickelson has already started giving back to the game by lending a helping hand to up and coming players on the LIV Golf League.
At LIV Golf Hong Kong, he was spotted giving 20-year-old Caleb Surratt advice after Surratt’s Legion XIII Captain, Jon Rahm, asked Mickelson if there was anything he could pass on to the youngster following their round together in Jeddah.
Rather than just share his thoughts, Mickelson offered Surratt a one-to-one lesson to talk him through a few bits and pieces that the great had learned over a career spanning three decades.
Mickelson revealed he was inspired to do so by the late, great Seve Ballesteros, who had once helped him ahead of his professional start.
“I was a kid who looked up to Seve Ballesteros and had an opportunity to play with him in my first professional event when I was 17 and played a practice round with him and had a remarkable day.
“Later on, we both represented Hugo Boss and we would do some photo shoots, and in between shots, we would go have chipping contests.
“I would ask him about chipping, and I would ask him about short game and some of the shots he would hit.
“What an incredible experience for me to be able to have contests with Seve, have the ability to ask him questions and to hear his thoughts, somebody I looked up to as a kid who I watched win the Masters when I was a kid.
“If somebody reaches out to me, I want to try to be as kind as Seve was.”
