How Tom Brady helped Phil Mickelson master the art of longevity

Phil Mickelson was up early — about 6 a.m. — and the sun hadn't yet risen over the course at Augusta National Golf Club. He was two weeks away from playing The Masters. And he was sliding on gloves to get ready for practice near that picturesque Bermuda grass.

But they weren't Mickelson's golf gloves. They were wide receiver gloves.

The best lefty in the history of golf was getting ready to catch footballs with Tom Brady.

It was either 2017 or 2018 — Mickelson couldn't quite recall — and Brady was trying to stay sharp for a throwing session he had on the books with Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski and some other New England Patriots teammates. For an hour or so, Mickelson stood in as Brady's top wideout and tight end.

It was fun — at first.

"He is going through his progressions of passes that he's throwing. [He started with] the little swing pass to the running back," said Mickelson told FOX Sports. "Those were easy, little, high, soft ones."

It escalated quickly. Mickelson had to run a route like Gronk.

"It's like a quick five-yard turnaround, or a quick slant. [Brady] is whistling this thing in there, and I can't see the first half of the ball because it's so dark," Mickelson said, cracking up. "I'm worried two weeks before the Masters about breaking a finger."

Mickelson and Brady spent a lot of time together over a four-day span during that stint they shared at Augusta. One of the many takeaways from that time for Mickelson was that Brady was always looking ahead — practicing (with Mickelson) for a practice session with his NFL teammates. But that was hardly the only takeaway. During their time in the gym, they spent a great deal of time thinking aloud about band exercises, hydration, dieting and recovery. They had a lot in common. Brady's "TB12" brand had just started blowing up. It was his answer for aging — a sometimes counterintuitive or surprising methodology to maintain peak performance. 

At the time, Mickelson had already revamped his lifestyle to stretch as many years out of golf as he could. Mickelson had already changed his diet and increased his coffee intake to fight against psoriatic arthritis, which doctors first diagnosed in 2010. 

"Before that, I was really pathetic," Mickelson joked about his diet.

He admitted he occasionally ate a dozen celebratory Krispy Kreme donuts after matches. Those days are over. Mickelson used to regularly drink Diet Coke. He hasn't had one in 15 years.

Mickelson, 54, said the conversation with Brady had "a very huge impact." 

"And as I've gotten older, I have found myself gravitating to the same thing [with band workouts] because I need to stay flexible, elastic, tone and strong, but I don't want to I don't want to get hurt and I don't want to have my muscles contract and tighten," Mickelson said. 

Mickelson and his trainer Sean Cochran have implemented Brady's routines into their workouts together. It wasn't the only thing Mickelson copied. The golfer now has his own brand, For Wellness. If Brady's brand is targeted for the rigors of football, Mickelson's looks at how to maximize a golfer's holistic wellness.

Mickelson's recipe has made for the most impressive longevity from a golfer.

No one would be surprised if Mickelson won LIV Mexico City this weekend.

No one who has been paying attention, that is.

Mickelson is of course the oldest major winner, with his PGA Championship victory in 2021. But he's not getting the credit he deserves for what he's doing in 2025. Mickelson fell out of the top 1,000 golfers this month on the PGA rankings, but that's largely because the tour doesn't honor what Mickelson is accomplishing with LIV Golf. Yet again, Mickelson is fighting against time.

He is currently 12th in the individual standings, with his first podium finish at Hong Kong Golf Club. He also snagged a top 10 at LIV Miami. Phil is eighth in LIV with 63.1 percent of fairways hit. That's up from 53.2 percent in 2024 and 52.3 percent in 2023. His drive length is trending down to 294 in 2025 after 299 in 2024 and 301.8 in 2023. But that hasn't mattered. 

"I'm driving it straighter than I've ever hit it, and that's allowing me to play to my strength, which is my iron play, and try to shoot low scores a little bit different way," he said. "I won't make as big mistakes off the tee. I'm not having the same number of penalty strokes. So all of these things are a different way for me to play, shoot low scores and ultimately try to beat the best players in the world with different with a different tactic."

The man who famously "hit bombs" at the Masters on the way to a second-place finish in 2023 isn't as concerned with a powerful driver in 2025. A part of fighting age is accepting it. Mickelson referenced a pair of MLB pitchers, Jamie Moyer and Greg Maddux, who never needed an elite fastball.

"They might not be able to overpower hitters the way [others] did with their fastball, but they're able to have late movement and position it better. They're able to set up the hitters through experience and so forth," Mickelson said. "And I would say that's kind of what I've been trying to do, and take advantage of this time in the offseason to strategize how to beat these guys a different way. I'm not going to be able to overpower the golf course the way the guys can."

There's one other area where Mickelson is growing.

This offseason, the HyFlyers GC captain started hosting a training camp — not unlike what football players do leading into the NFL season. At the end of January, Mickelson invited teammates Brendan Steele, Cameron Tringale and Andy Ogletree to his home in San Diego, which features a world-class training facility. 

Mickelson said he has always felt close to his teammates, but he said their time together created an "emotional connection" within the HyFlyers, which ramped up intensity for 2025. They're sitting in eighth place ahead of Mexico City. And the HyFlyers aren't afraid to seek each other out for solutions when they're running into problems with their game. 

Just the other week, Brendan Steele asked Mickelson about an issue, which they then spent the next eight hours drilling. At the end of it, Mickelson admitted he had a question about his chipping, which — when prompted — Steele admitted he noticed. So they then dedicated time to finding a solution for Mickelson.

"This team element has really brought a new energy and enjoyment for me in the game,"  Mickelson said. "We're helping each other bring the best out on each other. And we have a support system."

Mickelson has his podium finish. The HyFlyers have had their podium finishes. 

But it feels like a matter of time before we see a No. 1 finish, both from the team and the individual. And that's because it's a matter of time — and fending it off in a way no one else has — for Mickelson.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.