{"id":435111,"date":"2025-06-09T13:57:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=435111"},"modified":"2025-06-09T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:00:00","slug":"video-is-mickelsons-viral-flop-shot-a-sign-of-flair-or-farewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/video-is-mickelsons-viral-flop-shot-a-sign-of-flair-or-farewell\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: Is Mickelson\u2019s Viral Flop Shot a Sign of Flair or Farewell?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Phil Mickelson staged a moment many fans won\u2019t soon forget at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/liv-golf-announces-new-naming-rights-for-virginia-event\/\" target=\"_self\">LIV Golf Virginia<\/a> on Sunday. The 54-year-old found himself deep in the rough above a greenside bunker while facing the par\u20114 17th in the final round at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. With his back facing the flag, Mickelson whipped out a high\u2011lofted wedge, opened it wide, and swung full-on. The ball soared, curved nearly over his shoulder, landed softly near the hole, and dropped in. The gallery erupted in loud cheers in response.<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cOne of The Greatest Shots I&#8217;ve Ever Seen In My Entire Life\u201d<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/2025\/03\/08\/bryson-dechambeau-liv-golf\/\" target=\"_self\">Bryson DeChambeau<\/a> was left in utter amazement following Mickelson&#8217;s shot. The 31-year-old had some glowing things to say about the viral flop shot that sent fans cheering.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe created some Phil Mickelson magic there,\u201d DeChambeau said afterwards. \u201cVintage Phil. See him get up on the side he&#8217;s just staring at it. He&#8217;s like, you know, he could just see his wheel turning. And then he just hit the shot and I got the perfect angle of it. It literally looked like the top of his roof right here. Just came back down, landed perfectly. And I go, oh my gosh, he&#8217;s going to make it. And it went into the hole and I was like that&#8217;s got to be one of the greatest shots I&#8217;ve ever seen in my entire life.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Even <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brysondech?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@brysondech<\/a> was stunnned by <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhilMickelson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@philmickelson<\/a>\u2019s unbelievable flop shot on 17 \ud83d\ude2e<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LIVGolfVirginia?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#LIVGolfVirginia<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Crushers_GC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@crushers_gc<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vCDl6fJQ11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/vCDl6fJQ11<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/livgolf_league\/status\/1931829532379455594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>So what does this unbelievable flop shot say about Mickelson\u2019s game and direction?<\/p>\n<h2>Flair or Farewell For Mickelson?<\/h2>\n<p>Mickelson has always been known for his creativity and short\u2011game brilliance. But even Mickelson admitted that although it was one of his better shots, it still took him by surprise that it went in. Even at nearly 55 and after over two hours of stoppages due to rain, Mickelson fired a 65 in the final round and tied for fourth at 13 under, just two strokes behind winner Joaqu\u00edn Niemann. His flair didn\u2019t fade; he still set up high\u2011risk, high\u2011reward shots with supreme confidence and hit them when it mattered.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_435119\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-435119\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-435119\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26410460_168416623_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26410460_168416623_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26410460_168416623_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26410460_168416623_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26410460_168416623_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26410460_168416623_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26410460_168416623_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26410460_168416623_lowres.jpg 1746w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-435119\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jun 8, 2025; Gainesville, Virginia, USA; Phil Mickelson of team HyFlyers GC (L) talks with Carlos Ortiz of team Torque (R) after making a flop shot from the rough for birdie on the seventeenth green during the final round of the LIV Golf Virginia golf tournament at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The 54-year-old admitted that he worked on this shot before the event, with the result adding a little sprinkle of magic to end the weekend. But while the moment shined, the broader picture shows a winding chapter. Mickelson hasn\u2019t won since his PGA Championship victory in 2021, when he became the oldest major winner at age 50. Since moving to LIV Golf in 2022, he\u2019s yet to secure a win, and his form at majors has been shaky.<\/p>\n<p>Mickelson has also missed cuts at both <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/2025\/04\/09\/masters-tournament-practice-round-gets-rained-out\/\" target=\"_self\">the Masters<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/two-majors-away-from-schefflers-career-grand-slam-after-2025-pga-championship-triumph\/\" target=\"_self\">PGA Championship<\/a> this season and posted modest finishes on the LIV circuit. With the U.S. Open at Oakmont coming next, he hinted that this could be his final one, suggesting he might ease away from elite competition. So while his viral flop shot was undoubtedly flair, it also felt like farewell\u2014a grand finale gesture by a legend closing in on the end of a storied career.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phil Mickelson staged a moment many fans won\u2019t soon forget at LIV Golf Virginia on Sunday. The 54-year-old found himself deep in the rough above a greenside bunker while facing the par\u20114 17th in the final round at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. With his back facing the flag, Mickelson whipped out a high\u2011lofted wedge, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5425,"featured_media":435118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,200],"tags":[121,70,22],"class_list":["post-435111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-liv-golf","tag-bryson-dechambeau","tag-phil-mickelson","tag-the-masters"],"modified_by":"Ajayi Segun","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435111"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435120,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435111\/revisions\/435120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}