Phil Mickelson earns PGA Tour Champions win No. 2 in his second start

It was a Sunday southpaw skirmish in the final round of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic and the man they call Lefty emerged victorious.

Playing in his second PGA Tour Champions event after winning his debut back in August, Mickelson outdueled fellow Masters champion Mike Weir at Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course in Richmond, winning the 54-hole event at 17 under after an impressive 7-under 65 in the final round. All three rounds were played on the weekend due to excessive rain on Friday.

The 50-year-old senior circuit rookie entered Sunday play three strokes behind Weir and got off to a hot start, making birdie on four of his opening seven holes. He took a one-shot lead on the par-3 13th with a par after Weir made bogey and extended the lead to two with a birdie on No. 15. A tap-in birdie on No. 16 moved him to 16 under for the tournament and Lefty never looked back, ending his week with a birdie on No. 18.

“It’s fun for me to come out here and play well and this is a good start for me as I try to build a little bit of momentum heading to Augusta in about a month,” said Mickelson. “I put a new driver into play this week, trying to get a little more pop, a little more carry. It was a little wayward at times, but it was also effective in allowing me to play this course the way I wanted to, which was aggressively. So there were some good things that came of it, and I also identified some areas I’ve got to work on. All in all, it was a really fun, successful week.”

Mickelson joins Bruce Fleisher and Jim Furyk as the only players to win their first two starts on the senior tour. Furyk did so earlier this year.

“I have a lot of fun playing out here because I can play aggressive, I can
get away with a couple of misses and I can play the way I like to play and see a lot of the guys I haven’t seen in a while,” said Mickelson of his time on the PGA Tour Champions. “Mike Weir, we played college golf together and so it’s fun to go head to head and play. And then to play a little bit more attacking style, I really enjoy that.”

Weir finished second at 14 under, followed by Paul Goydos in third at 13 under. Brandt Jobe and Berhand Langer finished T-4 at 12 under.

“Yeah, I played well enough to win, I just didn’t putt good enough. I putted terrible today,” said Weir after his round. “But Phil played great, and I knew I was going to have to shoot a good score to win and my putter was just poor.”