Carmel Magazine

108 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 0 instead still chasing his dream of winning 50 career tournaments on the PGA Tour. Last year, he became a social media star with a series of cheeky posts and videos, and his business and philanthropic efforts are legion, but Mickelson remains deeply committed to his golf game. His latest victory at Pebble Beach was confirmation that he can still keep up with all the young guns. "It's a lot more work and effort to play at this level," he says. "But I have believed for some time that if I play at my best, it will be good enough to win tournaments. The challenge is getting myself to play my best. It's a lot more work off the course, it's more time in the gym, it's more effort to eat right, it takes more focus—all of these things go into it. So, it's very gratifying to see the results and to finish it off the way I did. But the fact is, it's very difficult to win out here and to win six more times [to get to 50 career victo- ries] is not going to be easy. It's still a goal of mine, it's still something I'm going to continue to strive for until I get there, but I also need to be realistic that it's going to be a tough goal to attain. That's why it's such a fun challenge." The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am takes place February 3-9. For more information or tickets, go to www.attpbgolf.com. A disappointing 52nd place finish at the 2019 U.S. Open left Mickelson looking ahead to the '20 Open at Winged Foot, where he double-double- bogied the 72nd hole in 2006 en route to finishing second, which he has done a record six times. Mickelson turns 50 in June but has vowed to continue to playing the PGA Tour, allowing him to stalk a record sixth victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Photo: Shutterstock/JK Multimedia Photo: Marc Howard

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