Phil Mickelson holes ‘genius’ sideways flop ahead of U.S. Open

In over 30 years in pro golf, Phil Mickelson has hit countless otherworldly golf shots — especially around the greens. But on Sunday, at the ripe age of 54, the six-time major champion may have just pulled off his most impressive shot yet.

At last weekend’s LIV Golf Virginia event, Mickelson hit one of his signature flop shots. But this one was unlike the thousands that came before it. Why? Mickelson hit it sideways, nearly backwards, from a difficult greenside lie. And it went in the hole.

Mickelson’s heroic flop shot at LIV Virginia

Mickelson was hunting for the lead in Sunday’s final round when he reached the par-4 17th hole at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

At that point, he was at 12 under for the tournament, just two shots off the lead. Winless so far in his LIV career, Phil seemed primed to contend for the title.

But when his approach shot missed the green and ended up in deep rough on the sloping bank of a greenside bunker, it seemed like Phil’s charge would come to an end.

The situation Mickelson was left with on 17 was not good. His ball was hole high, but as a lefty, Mickelson had to stand in the bunker to address the shot, with the ball above his feet and the hole behind him to his right, approximately at his 4 o’clock position.

Most players would have chosen to play towards safety. But Mickelson is unlike any other golfer. Instead, he decided to rely on the flop shot for which he’s become famous.

Mickelson has pulled off insane flops in exhibitions before. He’s even known to entertain observers by hitting a flop that goes backward over his head.

Now he was going to try it in competition with the lead on the line.

Just before he hit, LIV Golf announcer David Feherty presciently stated, “Phil can actually hit it over his head at times.”

So Mickelson set up to the ball and took a mighty thwack with on open-faced wedge. His ball shot up into the air on a high and sideways trajectory, looping to the right toward the green. It dropped softly with a thud just a few feet from the hole, then rolled right into the cup.

The incredible hole-out left the TV crew screaming, with shouts of, “Pure genius!!!” ripping through the booth.

Check it out below.

Bryson DeChabeau praises Phil’s shot before U.S. Open

The hole-out gave Mickelson a birdie-3, moving him to 13 under and just one shot off the lead. Unfortunately for Phil, he couldn’t manage to go lower, and he settled for a T4-finish while Joaquin Niemann took the victory.

After his round, Mickelson detailed the challenge he faced on his flop-shot hole-out, at first with a touch of modesty.

“So that was one of my better ones,” Mickelson said of the epic shot. “It was one of my better ones. I don’t know what to say because I have to aim so far left because I’m hooking it over my shoulder and trying to guess how much it’s going to hook is the challenge. But it wasn’t hard stopping it. It was hard guessing how much it was going to hook because it was soft greens and I had such an uphill lie, the ball was going to go high, but just judging how much the ball was going to come over my shoulder, that was the challenge.”

He finished the thought by saying, “even I was a little bit surprised.”

Bryson DeChambeau matched Mickelson’s T4-finish at LIV Virginia, and his Crushers GC won the team title. In his own winning press conference, DeChambeau was asked about Phil’s shot, and he showered praise on the golf legend, calling his flop “one of the greatest shots I’ve ever seen.”

“Man, he created some Phil Mickelson magic there. Vintage Phil. To see him get up on the side slope, and he’s just staring at it. You could just see his wheels turning,” DeChambeau said of Mickelson’s flop shot. “And then he hit the shot, and I got the perfect angle of it. It literally looked like the top of this roof right here. Just came back down, landed perfectly, and I go, oh, my gosh, he’s going to make it, and it went in the hole and I was like, that’s got to be one of the greatest shots I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

Now Mickelson heads to the U.S. Open, where DeChambeau is the defending champion. Mickelson is playing the 2025 U.S. Open on an exemption earned through his 2021 PGA Championship victory.

But after this year, Phil’s U.S. Open exemptions are over. Unless he plays his way into the 2026 event, Oakmont could be his final U.S. Open start. Mickelson famously has a record six runner-up finishes at the U.S. Open, but he’s never won it. It’s the only leg of the career Grand Slam he hasn’t claimed.

But Mickelson is also playing his best golf in years. His T4-finish at Liv Virginia was his second-best LIV finish ever. His top result came at LIV Golf Hong Kong in March (3rd), and he finished 6th at LIV Miami in April.

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