Someday, 25 five years hence, a pro golfer will arrive at the right hand side of the 18th green on Baltusrol’s Lower Course with a major championship on the line and tap the Mickelson plaque. Its position will identify the spot deep in the greenside rough from which Phil Mickelson lofted a delicate lob-wedge to within three feet of the hole yesterday – a shot that guaranteed the left-hander victory in the 87th PGA Championship.

That future champion will be hoping to create the same karma Mickelson says he sought when tapping the Nicklaus plaque, set in the fairway to commemorate the Golden Bear’s 238-yard one-iron to the 72nd green of the 1967 U.S. Open.

Taking inspiration from the great Nicklaus is never a bad move but, in truth, Mickelson didn’t really need any help. After holding the outright lead at the end of the second and third rounds, plus having to go into a fifth day, again with the lead, Mickelson had what he called a very stressful week. But how grimly he hung on, and how impressively he finished a tournament he had looked to be throwing away.

Mickelson now has two major victories, of course, and there’s no question he richly deserved both. At Augusta last year, he shot 31 on the back nine, holing a tough downhill putt on the 72nd green to beat Ernie Els by one. At Baltusrol yesterday, he hit two towering shots to the right of the last green, that beautiful semi-explosion from deep rough, and a short but testy three-footer that rolled unerringly into the middle of the cup. All under the most intense pressure. It’s not surprising that his caddie says Mickelson’s best attribute could well be his guts.

And in addition to that increasingly evident mental fortitude, his impressive ball striking, and supernatural short game, Mickelson now possesses one further attribute: A mature golfing brain that showed definite signs of having caught up with his level of talent at Augusta last year.

As he suggested himself during his winner’s press conference, Mickelson took so long to break into the major winner’s circle – his win at Augusta was his 47th try – not because of a lack of talent but because of a maddening inability to play the right shot at the right time.

“When I watch some of the shots I attempted off certain tees or at certain holes ten years ago, I just think ‘what was I doing?'” Mickelson said. “In the final round I made four or five bogies, but at least I was on the proper side of the green, which gave me a chance to get up and down. There was never a point where I short-sided myself.”

Mickelson’s shrewd strategy, thorough preparation, and willingness to stick to a game plan that is sometimes contradictory to his natural exuberance seem almost Nicklaus-like and will surely help him reap more major glory in the coming years.

Mickelson added greatly to his legend yesterday, but he wasn’t alone, as Baltusrol cemented itself among America’s top championship layouts. It may not be among the country’s favorite courses – it is relentless and has no ocean or mountain views – but as a major championship venue, it has few peers.

The PGA came out smelling of roses after setting the course up in a way that promoted cautious aggression and which satisfied both the need to challenge the world’s top golfers and entertain the world’s golf fans. Players had no reason not to take a driver off the tee because they knew the greens were tender enough to hold an approach shot from the rough. Only on Sunday, when the wind got up and the greens dried out a little, did players have difficulty holding them.

For sure, the course was extremely difficult – the winning score was four more than Lee Janzen’s winning total in the 1993 U.S. Open at Baltusrol – but it wasn’t extremely silly like some recent U.S. Open venues which have featured the full range of obstacles: narrow fairways; tall, thick rough; and concrete greens that even today’s high-spinning balls couldn’t stick to.

The PGA had the good sense to water the putting surfaces frequently and maintain the grass at a height at which lofted approaches didn’t take one bounce and inevitably dart into the gallery. A top 10 featuring Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Davis Love, David Toms, and U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell, demonstrated the quality of the course and should guarantee that future major championships return to Springfield, N.J.

Everyone apart from Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington, both of whom missed putts on the 72nd green to post what turned out to be the winning score, will celebrate what was a fine championship. But it will be Mickelson who takes the most from this year’s PGA. He is now halfway to a career Grand Slam and should now find it much easier to add to his collection of major trophies.

“He is not a two major guy, he’s a 10 major guy,” Bjorn said yesterday. Others, meanwhile, have already suggested Mickelson will now provide the main challenge to Tiger’s quest for a record 19 major victories.

Before we all get carried away, however, let’s remember how Ernie Els was supposed to take over the world after winning his third major at the British Open in 2002 (he still has three, 12 majors later) and how tough it is to win these days with an ever-growing number of accomplished players.

The future, however, is of little concern to Mickelson at the moment. For now, he can go home safe in the knowledge that his second major triumph elevates him above the list of one-hit wonders and nudges him one step closer to immortality.