Phil Mickelson has a standing invitation to come out of hiding and play the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial in Fort Worth.
The field for the event will be set May 19, and while Phil is still on his self-appointed exile, there is a chance he could return to a tournament that he has won before.
Phil is a close friend with Charles Schwab. That friendship is the reason why Mickelson played the 2021 CS Challenge, only a few days after he won the PGA Championship.
Mickelson told Schwab himself he would play in his tournament, and he made good on his promise.
Battling obvious fatigue, Mickelson didn’t make the cut.
His arrival at Colonial this year would be the only thing that would push the Charles Schwab Challenge ahead of the AT&T Byron Nelson in the silent competition between DFW’s two PGA TOUR events.
It’s doubtful he will play, but ...
In February Mickelson announced he was stepping away from golf after his critical comments of the PGA Tour regarding the new Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series went viral.
On April 25, Mickelson’s agent released a statement that Mickelson registered to play in the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and the first LIV Golf Invitational Series event.
Mercurial Mickelson has no concrete plans to play any of those events. Or any event.
If somehow he pays Schwab another favor and plays Colonial, it would turn the 2022 CS Challenge into the biggest golf tournament since The Masters.
People all over the world would stop scrolling their phones to read and listen to hear Phil explain himself. It may the ideal spot to do it; the crowds would not be nearly as big as the upcoming majors.
The more likely scenario is Phil does not return to Fort Worth, and for the first time in more than a decade the AT&T Byron Nelson has a more pop than the Colonial.
Depending on where you live, you can thank/blame the PGA Tour for this development.
When the PGA Toru remade its schedule a few years ago to avoid the NFL event organizers at the CS Challenge always knew this type of scenario was not a possibility, but more of an inevitability.
The AT&T Byron Nelson is this week at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, and it features a field that any tournament of this strata should envy.
Four of the top 10 players in the world, and seven of the top 15, are scheduled to play in what is the Tour’s best lineup since The Masters.
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked player, will be there with Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama, Brooks Koepka and Joaquin Niemann.
It is doubtful the CS Challenge in two weeks will attract such a crowd.
The field for 2022 CS Challenge is not set, but as May 11 the field features Schauffele, Spieth, Tony Finau and Sam Burns along with Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson and some other “names” you may recognize.
(FYI: Spieth joined PGA Tour player and Colonial Country Club member Ryan Palmer with Dallas-native Scheffler for a round at Colonial last week).
Nope, don’t ask.
OK. Fine. Tiger is not coming. That development will require the end of the world. Even then it’s doubtful Tiger would return to Hogan’s Alley.
The CS Challenge will be fine, but it caught the wrong spot of the PGA Tour’s 2022 calendar; the Tour changed its schedule a few years ago to make sure all of its major events avoided any conflict with the NFL season.
The Tour’s schedule has The PGA Championship next week, May 19 to 22, at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa.
Two weeks later, it’s The Memorial in Columbus, Ohio; as long as Jack Nicklaus is alive, the best PGA Tour players will make the pilgrimage to pay homage to the Golden Bear.
It’s what they did for Ben Hogan at Colonial, and for Mr. Nelson in Dallas.
Then it’s The Canadian Open, June 9 to 12; that is immediately followed by the U.S. Open, in Brookline, Massachusetts, June 16 to 19.
There is no ideal way to do this.
Some tournament, somewhere, is going to get pinched as top players take a week or two off.
In 2022, the schedule works in for The Nelson, and as such it moved “ahead.”
The only thing that will change that is if Punxsutawney Phil comes out and sees his shadow in Fort Worth.
