Phil Mickelson, one of the 21st Century's leading left-handed golfers, has been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
The popular Californian, who owns four major titles and can claim to have won 42 tournaments world-wide, was one of five golfing celebrities inducted into the Hall of Fame at a ceremony at the World Golf Village on Monday.
Mickelson and the other four honoured, Scotland's two-time major winner Sandy Lyle, golf writer Dam Jenkins, prominent British golfer and broadcaster Peter Allis and LPGA star Hollis Stacy, a four time women's major winner, brought to 141 the total number of Hall of Fame members.
Allis and Jenkins produced most of the ceremony's humour in their acceptance speeches, while Michelson preferred to concentrate on a timeline in which he included all the family, friends and team members who had helped him further his career.
Mickelson also paid tribute to his four fellow inductees by saying: "They can all attest (to the fact) that you can't start fulfilling your dreams until you dream big."
It was the second straight year that a player still among the top 20 on the World Ranking list had been voted into the Hall of Fame. Last year South Africa's Ernie Els was honoured in this way.
Alliss won 23 times on the European Tour and played in eight Ryder Cup matches until he joined the BBC as a broadcaster where his straight talk and brilliant command of the language quickly made him one of world golf's most recognizable voices.
Jenkins, who has covered 210 majors dating back to the 1951 US Open, is the third sportswriter to make it into the Hall of Fame.
golf365.com