LIV Golf star Brendan Steele has leaped to the defence of his HyFlyers team-mate and captain and Phil Mickelson following the American’s poor performance during the 2024 season
Doubts about whether Phil Mickelson can still cut it at the top level have been rubbished by the American’s tean-mate (
Image: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
Phil Mickelson is still one of the best golfers around and can beat anyone on his day, according to his HyFlyers GC team-mate Brendan Steele.
Six-time major champion Mickelson, 54, is the oldest player on the LIV Golf tour, but Steele insists he isn’t playing like it, despite the fact he ended the season 46th in league table, and managed just one top 10 finish all year.
Speaking on the Fairway To Heaven podcast, Steele, 41, waxed lyrical about Mickelson’s condition and claimed his skipper would bounce back soon. When asked if had had any doubts about whether Mickelson could still play at the highest level, he replied: “No, not at all.
“I’ve seen it all year. I know it didn’t come out during the tournaments as much as we would have liked [but] he played really well in Saudi, which was great. But the game that I saw all season from him is indicative of the way he can play, and the way I think he will play next year.”
Despite failing to impress since defecting from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf in 2022, Mickelson finished second in the 2023 Masters after shooting an impressive 65, tying his lowest ever score at Augusta. He also became the oldest major winner in golf history by clinching the PGA Championship in 2021 just a few weeks shy of his 51st birthday.
Mickelson’s ability to stay competitive well into his 50s, combined with his remarkably clean injury record, suggests that for him, age is merely a number – a sentiment Steele says he wholeheartedly shares.
“The limiting factors from his age would be injury [record] and speed, and he isn’t struggling in either one of those, so that’s what I always tell him,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Forget how old you are, the other 54-year-old’s are injured, they can’t keep up with the speed. They don’t want it anymore. You don’t have any of that’. So there’s no limitations.
Brendan Steele (R) has leaped to the defence of Phil Mickelson (L) ( Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
“People forget that the Masters was only 2023 and forget that the PGA [Championship victory] was not that long ago – they don’t give him enough credit from that standpoint. I know this year wasn’t as good as he would have liked, or as good as our whole team would have liked, but we’re determined to figure it out this off season, have a really good few months and be ready to go come next season.”
Steele joined Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC team in 2023. Since then he’s managed one tournament victory – clinching top spot at LIV Golf Adelaide back in April. He ended the 2024 season in 24th place, nabbing the final space in the Lock Zone.
His team-mates – Mickelson, Cameron Tringale and Andy Ogletree – struggled to keep pace, and HyFlyers GC ended the campaign second from bottom after amassing just 20.83 points across the season.
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