Phil Mickelson withdraws from PGA Championship

Phil Mickelson will not play in next week’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills.

The PGA of America announced the news on the tournament’s Twitter feed.

“We have just been informed that Phil Mickelson has withdrawn from the PGA Championship,” the post reads. “Phil is the defending champion and currently eligible to be a PGA Life Member and we would have welcomed him to participate. We wish Phil and Amy the very best and look forward to his return to golf.”

One of the most popular players in the game, Mickelson, 51, is a 45-time PGA TOUR winner who shocked the golf world with his PGA Championship win at Kiawah last summer. He became the oldest winner of a major, and added to a victory total that had long since put him into the World Golf Hall of Fame. It was his sixth major title.

Mickelson also has four victories on PGA TOUR Champions, but has not played competitively since stepping away from the game in late February, explaining, in part, “The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level. I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”