Phil Mickelson
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49 free Phil Mickelson trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Phil Mickelson is naturally right-handed, learned golf by mirroring his airline-pilot father's swing, won a PGA Tour event while still an Arizona State amateur and then spent a decade as the best player never to win a major. He fixed that with an 18-foot putt at Augusta in 2004, added two more green jackets, a PGA at Baltusrol and a Claret Jug at Muirfield, and at 50 became the oldest major champion in history at Kiawah Island. This quiz covers the whole ride: the Tucson win as an amateur, Bones Mackay, the Titleist voicemail, the 59 in Hawaii, the Winged Foot double bogey, the garbage-can drop, the Jim Nantz call in 2010, the balcony at St Andrews, the Troon 63, the Match against Tiger Woods for $9 million, the insider-trading fine, the psoriatic arthritis diagnosis, the Saudi comments that cost him KPMG and the move to LIV Golf. Fifty questions with four options each and a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for the clubhouse.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which California city was Phil Mickelson born and largely raised?
San Diego
San Diego is home to Torrey Pines, where he won three times; after the course was redesigned in 2001 he said the local knowledge from his boyhood hours there 'went away'.
Q 02What was the profession of Mickelson's father, Phil Sr.?
Airline pilot
Airline pilot: Phil Sr. flew Navy jets before joining the airlines, and he turned the family's backyard into a practice green where his son honed his short game.
Q 03Why does the naturally right-handed Mickelson play golf left-handed?
He mirrored his father's swing
He mirrored his father's swing, standing opposite him as a small boy and copying what he saw; Bob Charles, the first left-hander to win a major, was a natural right-hander too.
Q 04Mickelson's maternal grandfather Alfred Santos was a caddie at which course?
Pebble Beach
Pebble Beach opened in 1919 with young Al Santos among its caddies; Mickelson marks his ball there with a silver dollar his grandfather carried for decades.
Q 05Which university did Mickelson attend on a golf scholarship?
Arizona State
Arizona State: he won a PGA Tour event while still a student there, so on graduating in 1992 he skipped qualifying school and went straight onto the Tour.
Q 06Mickelson matched which 1970s Texas Longhorn's three straight Haskins Awards?
Ben Crenshaw
Ben Crenshaw won the first three Haskins Awards, given to the year's outstanding college golfer; even Tiger Woods took it only once, in 1996, before leaving Stanford after two years.
Q 07Which title did Mickelson win in 1990 by beating Manny Zerman in the final?
U.S. Amateur
U.S. Amateur: the win earned him a place in the 1991 Masters, where the 20-year-old college junior finished as low amateur in a tie for 46th.
Q 08Mickelson's 1991 win in Tucson made him the last amateur to win on the PGA Tour until which player in 2024?
Nick Dunlap
Nick Dunlap, an Alabama student, won the American Express 33 years after the 20-year-old Mickelson made a triple bogey with five holes left and still birdied 16 and 18 to win by one.
Q 09Who became Mickelson's caddie in 1992 and stayed for 25 years?
Jim 'Bones' Mackay
Jim 'Bones' Mackay carried the bag for five of Mickelson's six majors before they split in 2017, when he swapped it for a microphone as a television golf commentator.
Q 10Mickelson's 2000 Buick Invitational win stopped Tiger Woods's winning streak five short of whose record?
Byron Nelson
Byron Nelson won 11 tournaments in a row in 1945; Woods's six matched Ben Hogan's 1948 run, and Mickelson said afterwards that he had no wish to be 'the bad guy'.
Q 11From what lie did Mickelson thread a 6-iron between two trees onto the 13th green at the 2010 Masters?
Pine straw
Pine straw: with tree trunks in front of him and Rae's Creek before the green 200 yards away, he fired a 6-iron onto the green, then misread the short eagle putt that would have stretched his lead.
Q 12How did Mickelson clinch the 2004 Masters on the final hole?
An 18-foot birdie putt
An 18-foot birdie putt set off his famous jump for joy; he had gone out in 38 and came home in a bogey-free 31, with birdies on five of the last seven holes.
Q 13Who finished runner-up to Mickelson at the 2004 Masters?
Ernie Els
Q 21Who finished three shots behind Mickelson at the 2010 Masters?
Lee Westwood
Lee Westwood led by five on Saturday until Mickelson went eagle, eagle, then a birdie inches from a third eagle at 13, 14 and 15; a bogey-free 67 on Sunday won it by three.
Q 22Which CBS announcer called Mickelson's final putt at the 2010 Masters 'a win for the family'?
Jim Nantz
Jim Nantz made the call as the last putt dropped; Amy, a year into treatment for breast cancer, had reached the course only for the finish, and the couple's long embrace by the green followed.
Q 23Which condition did Mickelson reveal he had been diagnosed with before the 2010 PGA Championship?
Psoriatic arthritis
Ernie Els made two eagles in a closing 67 and had posted a total that looked good for at least a playoff, until Mickelson birdied the last hole to beat him by one.
Q 14Which manufacturer did Mickelson join shortly before the 2004 Ryder Cup, after leaving Titleist early?
Callaway
Callaway: his Titleist deal ended 16 months early, and at the Ryder Cup that followed he and Tiger Woods lost both their matches together.
Q 15Mickelson shot his career-low 59 in 2004 at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, an off-season event in which state?
Hawaii
Hawaii: at Poipu Bay he faced the year's other three major winners, but because the 59 came in an off-season exhibition, his best score in Tour play stayed at 60.
Q 16Mickelson won his first PGA Championship in 2005 at which course?
Baltusrol
Baltusrol: bad weather pushed the finish to Monday, when he reached the last hole tied for the lead, chipped out of deep rough to tap-in range and won by one.
Q 17Who won the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot after Mickelson double-bogeyed the last?
Geoff Ogilvy
Geoff Ogilvy chipped in at the 17th and parred the last, then watched Mickelson, who needed a par to win, make double bogey and say, 'I am such an idiot.'
Q 18Where did Mickelson's drive on the 17th at Winged Foot in 2006 famously come to rest?
Inside a garbage can
Inside a garbage can: he took a free drop, found the green and saved par to stay one ahead, only to double-bogey the next hole and lose by a shot.
Q 19Which swing coach did Mickelson hire in 2007 after leaving Rick Smith?
Butch Harmon
Butch Harmon, Tiger Woods's former coach, was hired to fix Mickelson's wayward tee shots, and within a month his new pupil had won The Players Championship.
Q 20After Amy Mickelson's 2009 cancer diagnosis, what did PGA Tour players do in support at Colonial?
Dressed in pink
Dressed in pink: the 'Pink Out' came at the event Mickelson had been due to defend, and he returned to the Tour weeks later after doctors said the cancer had been caught early.
Psoriatic arthritis struck just before that June's U.S. Open and left him in so much pain he could not walk; weekly injections had it under control within weeks.
Q 24Which putting grip did Mickelson adopt at The Barclays in 2012?
The claw
The claw followed a summer of putting trouble in which he missed the cut at the Open; a week after the switch he tied for fourth at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Q 25Who beat Mickelson by two at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, his record sixth runner-up finish in the event?
Justin Rose
Justin Rose finished two ahead of Mickelson, who led after 54 holes and holed out from 76 yards for an eagle at the 10th before bogeys on the way home left him second yet again.
Q 26Which event did Mickelson win the week before his 2013 Claret Jug triumph?
Scottish Open
Scottish Open: he three-putted the 72nd hole to fall into a playoff, then beat Branden Grace at the first extra hole for his first individual title in Britain.
Q 27At which links did Mickelson win the 2013 Open Championship?
Muirfield
Muirfield: he began the final day five shots back in a tie for ninth, came home in 32 for a 66 and finished as the only player under par.
Q 28Where did Mickelson's drive on the Road Hole land during the 2015 Open at St Andrews?
A hotel balcony
A hotel balcony: the drive flew out of bounds onto the second floor of the Old Course Hotel, and the triple-bogey 7 ended a late charge that had taken him within two of the lead.
Q 29At which course did Mickelson open the 2016 Open with a 63?
Royal Troon
Royal Troon: the putt for the first 62 in a major looked sure to drop before it spun out, and he said he wanted to shed a tear; Branden Grace shot that 62 a year later.
Q 30Who shot a final-round 63 to beat Mickelson's 65 at the 2016 Open?
Henrik Stenson
Henrik Stenson needed a record-low total of 264 to win; Mickelson's bogey-free 65 lost by three, yet still left him 11 shots clear of the man in third place.