McCARTHY: Phil Mickelson, the people’s champ, defies age, expectations to capture the PGA

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When the masses stormed the 18th fairway on Sunday at the PGA Championship, their hero walked not ahead of them but among them.

A more fitting image impossible as Phil Mickelson, forever the people’s champion, conquered the best golfers, the toughest golf course and, for one week, age itself.

“Certainly one of the moments I’ll cherish my entire life,” Mickelson said after his round. “I don’t know how to describe the feeling of excitement and fulfillment and accomplishment to do something of this magnitude when very few people thought that I could.”

Mickelson’s six-under-par victory at the treacherous Ocean Course on Kiawah Island at 50 years old makes him the oldest man to win any of golf’s four majors, supplanting Julius Boros who won the PGA Championship at age 48 in 1968. Jack Nicklaus and Old Tom Morris won their final majors at 46.

It’s Mickelson’s second PGA Championship win and sixth major title.

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“I hope that this inspires some to just put in that little extra work because, first of all, there’s no reason why you can’t accomplish your goals at an older age,” he said. “It just takes a little more work.”

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During a roller-coaster final round at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, Mickelson handled the ups and downs better than four-time major champion Brooks Koepka or 2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen, who finished tied for second at four-under.

With a familiar yet dizzying display of birdies and bogeys, Mickelson traded the lead with Koepka during a spellbinding front nine before pulling ahead by three early on the back nine, and holding on for a two-stroke victory.

On a day the seaside wind changed directions and befuddled players, Mickelson shot a final-round one-over 73, one better than playing partner Koepka (74) who inexplicably played the par-5s in three-over par.

“I’m super happy for Phil,” Koepka said. “I hope I’m still playing at 50, but to be able to come out and compete and actually win, that’s a whole other thing. So kudos to him.”

Mickelson wasn’t the only golfer turning back the clock, European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington finished at two-under after shooting a final-round three-under 69. Harrington joined fellow Irishman Shane Lowry, Paul Casey and Harry Higgs in a four-way tie for fourth behind Koepka and Oosthuizen.

Canadian Corey Conners began Sunday tied for 10th but finished tied for 17th after posting a final round 73.

“A little sour taste in my mouth,” Conners said after his round. “It definitely could have been better. Happy with my game, just couldn’t really get the putts to fall basically the last three days.”

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Conners was the first round leader after shooting a five-under 67 on Thursday. He was the first Canadian to lead a major after Round 1 since Mike Weir in 2009.

“Another confidence booster this week,” said Conners, who was coming off back-to-back Masters top-10s. “I would have liked to have finished it off a little better, but still a lot of good things, like I said. I’m excited for the U.S. Open up next. I feel like my game is really well suited for the majors in tough conditions.”

Over the past year sports has often been played in silence, on empty golf course and to empty stadiums, and one thing that has been painfully obvious is that great sports moments are meant to be shared.

If Mickelson has shown us anything over his career it’s that he wasn’t built to play on empty golf courses, and the scene on the 72nd hole at the Ocean Course will be long remembered. There were only approximately 10,000 spectators at the PGA Championship, it just turned out that every last one of them was there to watch Phil.

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Every now and then sports gives us these spine-tingling moments, but Sunday seemed different. It wasn’t the great champion at the height of his powers. And it wasn’t the aging champion we all trusted to do it one more time. Nor was it an edge-of-your-seat classic that went down to the wire. It was a magician suspending the audience’s disbelief, saving his greatest trick for last, and leaving us trying to figure out how he did it.

“It’s very possible that this is the last tournament I ever win,” Mickelson said. “Like if I’m being realistic. But it’s also very possible that I may have had a little bit of a breakthrough in some of my focus and maybe I go on a little bit of a run, I don’t know.”

Nobody knows.

And that’s what magic’s all about.