Phil Mickelson has withdrawn from next week's PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club, the latest setback in a season that has now seen the two-time winner of the major skip both Augusta and the year's second major championship.
The 55-year-old's withdrawal, first reported by the New York Post on May 5 and confirmed by the PGA of America, was attributed to a family health matter. Multiple outlets, including Yahoo Sports and the BBC, used near-identical wording in their reporting, suggesting the explanation came directly from Mickelson's representatives. Max Homa has been moved into the field as Mickelson's replacement.
It is the second major Mickelson has missed in 2026. He withdrew from the Masters in April for what his camp described at the time as a family health situation, marking only the second time since 1995 that he had not teed it up at Augusta National. The result was an unprecedented absence: for the first time since 1994, the year's first major was contested without either Tiger Woods or Mickelson in the field.
That distinction now extends to Aronimink. Woods, still recovering from his latest round of physical issues, is also out of the PGA Championship. The pair, who together account for 21 major championships, will both be missing from a major in May for the first time in over three decades.
Mickelson has been candid about how heavily missing Augusta weighed on him. Speaking earlier in the season, he described the Masters as 'definitely the most special week of the year,' and his absence at Aronimink is likely to land just as hard. The PGA Championship is the venue of his most improbable triumph, the 2021 win at Kiawah Island that made him, at 50, the oldest major champion in history.
Beyond the personal context, Mickelson's withdrawal arrives at an awkward moment for LIV Golf. The Wall Street Journal reported on April 29 that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will end its financial backing of the breakaway league after the 2026 season, with cumulative losses exceeding $5 billion since 2022. Mickelson, the first superstar to defect to LIV in 2022, has been the league's most vocal defender. He has been notably silent on the funding decision, posting nothing about the league on social media for more than three weeks.
Former ESPN host Trey Wingo, speaking to Awful Announcing's Brandon Contes, was blunt about the road back if LIV does fold. 'Burned. I can promise you one person that you'll never see in any way in an official capacity with the PGA Tour is Phil Mickelson,' Wingo said. 'That bridge has been burned, detonated, destroyed, nuked, lasered to death. There is no building that bridge back.'
That assessment may be more dramatic than the truth, given Mickelson holds a lifetime PGA Tour membership earned over more than three decades on tour. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has acknowledged the lingering tension, telling the WSJ: 'I don't necessarily have scar tissue, but there are plenty of people around our tour who do. It has to be accounted for in some shape or form.'
For now, however, the calculus is simpler. Mickelson's family health situation remains undisclosed, and there has been no indication of when, or whether, he plans to return to competition this season. Aronimink will go on without him.