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KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Phil Mickelson has delivered so many thrills and spills over 30 years of pure theater that no one ever knows what he will do next. RELATED: Ben Cook wins low club professional at PGA Championship | Final leaderboard His latest act was a real stunner: A major champion at age 50. Mickelson captured his sixth major and by far the most surprising Sunday at the PGA Championship. He made two early birdies with that magical wedge game and let a cast of contenders fall too far behind to catch him in the shifting wind of Kiawah Island. He closed with a 1-over 73, building a five-shot lead on the back nine and not making any critical mistakes that kept him from his place in history. Julius Boros for 53 years held the distinction of golf’s oldest major champion. He was 48 when he won the 1968 PGA Championship in San Antonio. Pure chaos broke out along the 18th hole after Mickelson hit 9-iron safely to just outside 15 feet that all but secured a most improbable victory. Thousands of fans engulfed him down the fairway — a scene typically seen only at the Open Championship — until Mickelson emerged into view with a thumbs-up. Chants of “Lefty! Lefty! Lefty!” chased him onto the green and into the scoring tent, his final duty of a week he won’t soon forget. Three months after 43-year-old Tom Brady won a seventh Super Bowl, Mickelson added to this year of ageless wonders. Mickelson became the first player in PGA TOUR history to win tournaments 30 years apart. The first of his 45 titles was in 1991 when he was still a junior at Arizona State. Mickelson became the 10th player to win majors in three decades, an elite list that starts with Harry Vardon and was most recently achieved by Tiger Woods. “He’s been on TOUR as long as I’ve been alive,” Jon Rahm said. “For him to keep that willingness to play and compete and practice, it’s truly admirable.” Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen had their chances, but only briefly. Koepka was 4 over on the par 5s when the game was still on and closed with a 74. Oosthuizen hit into the water as he was trying to make a final run and shot 73. Mickelson finished at 6-under 282. The victory came one week after Mickelson accepted a special exemption into the U.S. Open because at No. 115 in the world and winless the last two years, he no longer was exempt from qualifying. He had not finished in the top 20 in his last 17 tournaments over nearly nine months. He worried that he was no longer able to keep his focus over 18 holes. The PGA Championship had the largest and loudest crowd since the return from the COVID-19 pandemic — the PGA of America said it limited tickets to 10,000 — and it was clear what they wanted to see. The opening hour made it seem as though the final day could belong to anyone. The wind finished its switch to the opposite direction from the opening rounds, and while there was low scoring early, Mickelson and Koepka traded brilliance and blunder. Koepka flew the green with a wedge on the par-5 second hole, could only chip it about 6 feet to get out of an impossible lie and made double bogey, a three-shot swing when Mickelson hit a deft pitch from thick grass behind the green. Mickelson holed a sand shot from short of the green on the par-5 third, only for Koepka to tie for the lead with a two-shot swing on the sixth hole when he made birdie and Lefty missed the green well to the right. Kevin Streelman briefly had a share of the lead. Louis Oosthuizen was lurking, even though it took him seven holes to make a birdie. And then the potential for any drama was sucked out to sea. Oosthuizen, coming off a birdie to get within three, had to lay up out of the thick grass on the 13th and then sent his third shot right of the flag and into the water, making double bogey. Just like that, Mickelson was up by five and headed toward the inward holes, the wind at his back on the way home with what seemed like the entire state of South Carolina at his side.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rory McIlroy raised his hands slowly as he was approached by a small throng of reporters waiting at the front steps of the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse for reaction to the cancellation of THE PLAYERS Championship. “Not too close,â€� he said with a hint of nervous humor, but also just enough seriousness as the group closed in to create a six-foot buffer. Related: Commissioner Monahan explains PLAYERS cancellation, discusses future | TOUR statement on cancellations The defending PLAYERS Champion will carry that title another year as the PGA TOUR cancelled TPC PLAYERS prior to the second round, as well as the upcoming Valspar Championship (March 19-22), World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play (March 25-29), Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship (March 26-29) and Valero Texas Open (April 2-5). Augusta National also announced the Masters (April 9-12) will be postponed, meaning the PGA TOUR is on competitive hiatus until, at least the RBC Heritage, which currently due to start on April 16. “It’s the right decision,â€� McIlroy said. “A hundred percent. If in a few weeks’ time this dies down and everything is okay, it’s still the right decision. The regining FedExCup champion wasn’t alone in his positive reaction to the decision. “This is obviously a very serious deal, and I think it’s only going to get worse right now, so it’s best for us not to be playing golf. The main deal right now is for everybody to be safe,â€� U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland said. “We had to do it. It would have looked horrible if we showed up and played today with every other sports leagues not playing. It probably would have been insensitive, so I’m glad the commissioner made the decision that he did. It’s best for us. It’s best for the fans and our families. Hopefully the world comes together and we get over this. This is a very serious deal.â€� Jack Nicklaus, who hosts the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide in early June, was quick to praise the move. “This has been a day and week of incredible concern, confusion and frustration throughout the sporting world, and, more important, our world in general. But as it relates to sport, I applaud the decisions made and the actions taken by all the sporting organizations and ruling bodies, and we hope they produce the intended result, which is simply to keep people safe and not expose them to significant health risks,â€� Nicklaus said via a statement. “As an enormous sports fan myself, I hope the passionate fan bases behind every sport are able to pause, take a step back, and reflect on the importance behind the decisions made. Until this COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic is resolved and until things resume with some normalcy, my friends, please be safe, be smart and stay healthy.â€� Jon Rahm, who originally was on board to keep playing, said he realized the cautionary action was the right move as he read and heard more about the virus. “There’s bigger problem on our hands. People are getting affected; people are having problems. Like I’ve said many times, I’m pretty scared because there’s quite a bit of people in my family with asthma, and my 85-year-old grandma being one of them, which is a direct target,â€� he said. “And there’s nothing I can do because I can’t go home, I can’t come back. All we can all try to do is resume our lives as normal and try to be as clean as possible, wash our hands. I’ve been up since early in the morning, and I can’t believe how many times I’ve washed my hands already and I haven’t left my room. I’m just trying to be clean and do our part as citizens to improve this.â€� Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger was due to get on the last Austrian Airlines flight back to Vienna on Friday afternoon before travel bans start to take effect. He had made the decision to get the flight even before the Masters announced a postponement, knowing he may miss it as a result. He intended to do grocery shopping and other tasks for his mother and grandmother so they did not need to be put at unnecessary risk. “I think it’s the right move, what Jay Monahan and the PGA TOUR have done going forward. Obviously everyone here would have loved to see some golf, but in the bigger picture I’m in constant contact with family and relatives in Europe, and it’s pretty bad there,â€� Wiesberger added. “I’m looking forward to going back home and being with them and help out over there… but it’s unprecedented times. We all need to kind of stick together and do the right thing for everyone, for the elderly, to not have anyone affected that doesn’t need to be, and therefore I think it’s good we’re packing up today and kind of going home and try to have as minimal a social contact as possible and try not to spread it any further.â€� Zach Johnson said it was a chance for everyone to take stock. “I didn’t sleep well last night, but it wasn’t because I wasn’t competing. I didn’t sleep last night because it’s just the unfortunate scenario we’re in,â€� Johnson said. “I think obviously it’s a time to reflect and just really understand, it’s just golf. It’s just golf. It’s just a sport. So it pales in comparison to what we could be combating at some point.â€� With no concrete return date, given the ever-changing situation across the globe, there was uncertainty from players as to how they would spend the next few weeks. Most said they’d focus on their loved ones while trying to remain relatively sharp with a little practice. Others, including Jason Day, said they’d use it as recovery time from nagging injuries. “We’ll go home and relax a little bit, take this as a little bit of a mini offseason in a way,â€� Rickie Fowler said. “But the biggest thing is obviously we don’t want this to turn into something bigger than what it is and what it can be.â€� “This is one of these things where we just have to wait and see. It’s so uncertain, you’re obviously going to still keep playing golf, but you’re going out there practicing not knowing what you’re practicing for,â€� McIlroy added. “I was supposed to have my coach, Michael Bannon, fly out next week and we were going to spend some time together, and that’s probably not going to happen, him coming from Ireland. Probably have time just to spend some time at home, evaluate the situation, and see where we go.â€� In terms of when players expected they’d feel comfortable to return to tournament golf, McIlroy mirrored most when he said he’d be guided by the health experts. “Whenever the powers that be say it’s safe to do so,â€� McIlroy said of a return date. “All you can do is follow the guidelines from the CDC and from the people that really know about this thing.â€� For more on the coronavirus disease, please visit the Center for Disease Control’s information page.

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Who says golf needs a longer break? The fall schedule provided comebacks, drama and a good lead in to 2020.

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