MARTIN SAMUEL: This 肉親，親類d of fun CAN'T be bought... 最高の League ゴルフ may be 申し込む／申し出ing 深い pockets for the best 星／主役にするs but Phil Mickelson's historic 業績／成果 at Kiawah Island shows history is the greatest 通貨 of all

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Just imagine if the 最高の ゴルフ League had come along a year, maybe two, earlier.

We might never have got to see history made at the Ocean Course, Kiawah Island. We might never have got to see a man old enough to play on the 上級の 小旅行する, 勝利，勝つ a major.?

In the sport of ゴルフ, Phil Mickelson went その上の than any man of his 世代. その上の than Julius Boros, the oldest 勝利者 of a major tournament, 勝利を得た in the PGA 選手権 at Pecan Valley, Texas, in 1968.?

American golfer Phil Mickelson won the 2021 PGA 選手権 on Sunday (above)

その上の than Old Tom Morris, who was a mere stripling of 46 when he collected his last Open 選手権 at Prestwick in 1867. Mickelson will be 51 next month. He arrived 階級d 115 in the world. He hadn't finished 最高の，を越す 10 in a major since 2016, hadn't won one since 2013. This was not meant to happen.

As for the much-vaunted 最高の ゴルフ League, where does it go from here? A no-brainer, 物陰／風下 Westwood called it, just last week.?

At the age of 48, if 申し込む／申し出d £50m to play in the 最高の ゴルフ League, Westwood intimated he wouldn't think twice even if it meant going without another major 選手権 入ること／参加（者）, or a place at the Ryder Cup.?

Yet what does he think now? What does any golfer of a 確かな age think having seen Mickelson lead the PGA 選手権 into day four, and stay there, with much younger men on his tail and in his wake? Might he think that if Mickelson can do it, so can he??

That if Padraig Harrington, at 49, can be in the mix, that if Kevin Streelman can be around the leaderboard at 42 and 階級d outside the 最高の，を越す 50, why would a 豊富な man of 広大な／多数の／重要な talent and ambition choose to take more money and run? Where 正確に／まさに was the fun, the sport, in that?

The 50-year-old celebrated with his caddie after winning the final 一連の会議、交渉／完成する at the tournament?

Mickelson's success （機の）カム on the Ocean Course at the?PGA 選手権 ゴルフ tournament

Mickelson certainly looked as if, for all the 激しい 圧力 of trying to の近くに out a major's final 18 穴を開けるs, there was 楽しみ t o be had rewriting the 記録，記録的な／記録する 調書をとる／予約するs.?

The 半導体素子 from a greenside （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕 on five, that dropped and took him two 発射s （疑いを）晴らす, to かもしれない the biggest 元気づける of the day? That looked fun.

The roar that 迎える／歓迎するd one of many sublime approach 発射s, not least at the 12th when he 発表するd: 'I kinda like that.' Fun.?

Outdriving Brooks Koepka, a man 19 years his junior, 負かす／撃墜する the 16th. The mayhem on 18. Fun, fun, fun. On the fifth, Mickelson held his sand wedge aloft with a straight arm, punched the 空気／公表する twice.?

He's played a 発射 like that a thousand times, yet there is nothing more special than doing it at the 権利 place and time. The 最高の ゴルフ League? The money's good. Insanely good. But the glory, the 演劇, the history, the meaning? That comes from taking on the same challenges that defined men like Jack Nicklaus or Ben Hogan, even 同時代のs such as Tiger 支持を得ようと努めるd.

Mickelson has been 的d by 最高の League ゴルフ, no 疑問 for the same 推論する／理由s the organisers （機の）カム for Westwood. They thought he was done. Indeed, by comparison to Westwood, Mickelson probably was. For a start, he is already three years older. He hasn't truly been in 論争 at a major since 王室の Troon in 2016. He must have seemed 正確に／まさに the sort of player who had nothing to lose and everything to 伸び（る） by going into lavishly-基金d 追放する.

This rather made a mockery of that presumption. It was a classic day four at a major: two 発射 swings, a matchplay event with Koepka ahead of a hungry chasing pack, 含むing the dangerous Louis Oosthuizen.?

In the sport of ゴルフ, Phil Mickelson (above) went その上の than any man of his 世代 - 含むing than Julius Boros, the oldest 勝利者 of a major tournament

He also went t その上の than Old Tom Morris (above), who was a mere stripling of 46 when he collected his last Open 選手権 at Prestwick in 1867

'Go on Phil,' shouted a 発言する／表明する in the gallery, 'show these kids how it's done.' 井戸／弁護士席, he didn't 正確に／まさに do that. This was no masterclass of 百分率 ゴルフ and composure.. But then 穴を開けるs 55-72 are rarely 展示s of hitting fairways and greens in 規則. Instead, Mickelson 配達するd a lesson in riding the rollercoaster without throwing up.?

It was a thrilling, cavalier 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, teetering endlessly between 勝利 and 災害. Bogey, birdie, bogey, par, birdie, bogey, birdie. That was just the first seven 穴を開けるs. Hell, what was that par doing in there?

And when Mickelson is making a play in which anything can happen, that wears off on 対抗者s, too. Koepka started the day a 発射 off the lead but a （疑いを）晴らす bookmakers' favourite because he was younger and more 一貫した and won his last major in 2019, six years after Mickelson's 勝利 in the Open at Muirfield. Yet Mickelson's 拒絶 to 簡単に shuffle off like a nice old man made Koepka nervous. He 二塁打 bogeyed the second, he lipped out from インチs on the third. He went bogey, bogey, 二塁打 bogey on the par fives, twitching in a way few will in any 最高の ゴルフ League event because once everyone gets £50m and there is no glory in winning a storied 肩書を与える, what else is there?

Nothing like this. Nothing like the glory Mickelson chased around Kiawah Island. Was it 価値（がある） more than the 最高の ゴルフ League's big 解雇（する） o' cash? Of course it was. Every stride of it. That's major tournament ゴルフ. That's history. That's the real no-brainer.?