Phil Mickelson said recently that his goal is to reach 50 wins on the PGA Tour. How big an achievement would that be? Huge. How likely is Mickelson to reach that goal? Let's look at a few numbers.

In the history of the PGA Tour, only seven golfers have won 50 or more times:

• Sam Snead - 82
• Jack Nicklaus - 73
• Tiger Woods - 71
• Ben Hogan - 64
• Arnold Palmer - 62
• Byron Nelson - 52
• Billy Casper - 51

Mickelson is currently at 38, 12 wins away from joining that pantheon of greats. But first things, first: Mickelson needs another two wins to reach 40. There are two golfers in the 40-win range:

• Walter Hagen - 44
• Cary Middlecoff - 40

And there are two golfers between Mickelson and 40:

• Gene Sarazen - 39
• Tom Watson - 39

And then there's Phil. So right now, Mickelson ranks 12th on the all-time wins list. If most of his career hadn't overlapped (and been overshadowed by) Tiger Woods', Mickelson might already be considered one of the 10 best golfers of all-time.

But Mickelson is now 40 years old. To reach 50 wins, he has to win 12 times in his 40s. How many golfers have won at least 12 times on the PGA Tour after turning 40? Only two:

• Vijay Singh - 22
• Sam Snead - 17

Kenny Perry (11) and Julius Boros (10) are the only others with double-digit wins (Steve Stricker currently has nine). Vijay set a new standard for post-40s success, but Vijay also set a new standard for post-40s fitness.

Mickelson isn't exactly known for his fitness, and last year he announced the onset of psoriatic arthritis. That will certainly be a complicating factor in Phil's quest for 50.

There's also the fact that Mickelson has never had that one huge year in terms of wins. Singh once won nine times in a single season. Woods has nine different seasons of five or more wins.

Mickelson's highest single-season win total is four, which he's done three times, most recently in 2005. In the seasons since then, Mickelson has posted win totals of 2, 3, 2, 3 and 1.

And that's a good illustration of how difficult Mickelson's goal of reaching 50 is: If Phil duplicates those last five seasons, he'll still be short of 50. Because while 11 wins in five years is a very good record, it's still shy of the 12 wins he needs to get to 50.

Is Mickelson reaching 50 career wins possible? Absolutely. But I don't think it's likely. What do you think?

See also:
PGA Tour career wins list
Most PGA Tour wins after age 40
More on Phil Mickelson

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Can Phil Mickelson Reach 50 Career Wins? originally appeared on About.com Golf on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 at 09:32:15.

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