newest members of the World Golf Hall of Fame

Phil Mickelson, Sandy Lyle and Hollis Stacy, winners of a combined 10 major championships, sportswriter Dan Jenkins and veteran BBC broadcaster Peter Alliss — who was a good-enough player to make eight Ryder Cup teams — swelled the Hall membership to 141 members, and 70 in the modern era of the Hall of Fame and Museum.

After thanking his wife, children, family and inner circle such as Loy and caddie Bones McKay, Mickelson made it clear his career would not stop with the current record that got him into the Hall of Fame.

Lyle humbly said, “The Hall of Fame ... a great honor. I can’t say enough words about it.”

Mickelson becomes the second left-handed ping g15 driver player in the Hall of Fame and was an easy first-ballot selection at the age of 41 with four major titles and 40 PGA Tour victories to his credit.

Stacy said her entry into the Hall of Fame was “such a thrill,” and she credited the opportunities she had in professional golf to the founding members of the LPGA, one of whom, Louise Suggs, was among the Hall of Fame members in attendance.

Alliss won the national championships of Italy, Spain and Portugal in successive weeks, captured 20 other worldwide events, made every Ryder Cup team but one between 1953-1969 and represented England in the World Cup 10 times.

Lyle was the first native of Ping G20 Hybrid Great Britain to win the Masters and the first international winner of The Players 25 years ago when he defeated Jeff Sluman in a sudden-death playoff.

Stacy was a three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion and won six USGA national titles in all during an LPGA career. She remains the only woman to win three USGA events in a row, the junior girls from 1969-71.

“How could anybody get it so right, so fast, so good?” asked Jenkins’ editor at Golf Digest, Jerry Tarde, who introduced Jenkins. “He is golf’s most influential writer.”

While the Induction Ceremony celebrated those three players, it also honored two men who told numerous stories about the exploits of numerous Hall of Fame members through the written and spoken word.

Jenkins observed in his own inimitable discount golf clubs fashion that he is the third writer to enter the Hall of Fame and the first under certain circumstances.

A native of Scotland who maintains a part-time residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, the easy-going and personable Lyle won 29 worldwide tournaments and played for Europe on five Ryder Cup teams.

Mickelson has also come to be one of the fans’ favorites over the balance of his career, and has thrown himself into numerous charitable concerns, notably for the military and education.