Phil Mickelson says he’s really proud of what he did at The Open this year which many golf fans may not know

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Phil Mickelson had another busy major championship season in 2025, concluding with The Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

The Open represented the only major in which Mickelson made the cut, having failed to make the weekend at The Masters, the PGA Championship and the US Open.

Mickelson has since turned his focus back to LIV Golf, which he left the PGA Tour for in a high-profile switch in 2022.

Its individual season concludes this week, with the six-time major winner in the field for LIV Golf Indianapolis at the Club at Chatham Hills.

He has, however, taken a brief look back at his final major appearance of the season, having finished T56 at The Open.

The proud feat Phil Mickelson achieved at The Open which many fans didn’t know about

Very impressively, Mickelson made his 103rd major championship cut at Royal Portrush, placing him second in the all-time list behind only Jack Nicklaus.

Discussing that feat with Andrew Santino on No Bad Lies, he said: “That was cool, but what you might have missed is that for the entire tournament, the entire field, a 55-year-old hit the longest drive.

“That is what I care about! It’s about hitting bombs! 409 yards, the longest in the field. So I walk away feeling kind of like the winner. They don’t have the Claret Jug, but I still feel like a winner. I have the long drive!

READ MORE: The savage dig Phil Mickelson once aimed at Justin Rose about his failure to win The Masters

“You think I am kidding. Let me tell you something. Jack Nicklaus won 18 majors and he is captain of the Presidents Cup one year and we go after a round, we are sitting down having dinner, and he pulls his stuff out of his pockets and I saw his money clip and I recognise it.

“It’s from the PGA Championship. He has won the PGA I think five times and I said Jack I see you have the PGA Championship, I recognise it, I said which year was that from.

“He goes ‘no, no, no’. It wasn’t from my PGA win, he said the PGA used to run the long drive championship back in the 60s and he said they were taking bets in the locker room that so and so was going to beat me.

“I hit it 347 yards and a foot and I beat him by 12 yards. Now here he has the money clip 40 years later from the long drive, so let’s not kid ourselves. It’s the long drive that matters!”

The top 10 longest drives on the PGA Tour in 2025

It was, of course, Scottie Scheffler who emerged victorious at The Open, continuing his dominance on the PGA Tour.

But long drives certainly aren’t the world number one’s biggest strength, with Aldrich Potgieter ranked first for driving distance on the PGA Tour this season, whereas Scheffler is 60th.

Meanwhile, regarding the longest drives, Jake Knapp occupies top spot for his effort at The Sentry, while Mickelson is interestingly only on the official list for a 370-yard effort at The Open on hole two from his first round.

On LIV Golf, Joaquin Niemann just about leads Bryson DeChambeau for driving distance, with Mickelson T34 in the list with an average of 303.3 yards.