Phil Mickelson grasped the magnitude of what was to happen Monday

"It kind of hit [wife] Amy and I that we've really had a pretty great life experience these last 20 years," Mickelson said, hours before induction ceremonies to make him one of the Hall's five newest members.

Mickelson, who swashbuckled his way to three Masters titles and a PGA Championship among 40 PGA Tour wins, was preceded in enshrinement by Sandy Lyle, Hollis Stacy, veteran writer Dan Jenkins and BBC "voice of golf" Peter Alliss.

Jenkins and Alliss both were honored for journalistic excellence that has spanned parts of six decades. Jenkins began discount golf clubs covering Hogan and Byron Nelson in the 1950s in his native Fort Worth, Texas; Alliss first joined the BBC's British Open telecast in 1961.

"I'm just pleased to be taken in as a vertical human," quipped Jenkins, the first living writer to receive Hall of Fame enshrinement.

"It was kind of an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing," said Stacy, a Savannah native whose three U.S. Women's Open titles were recognized by the veterans' committee.

That Mickelson one day would enter the Hall of Fame was hardly in doubt since the San Diego native notched his first PGA Tour win while still a collegian. Lyle and Stacy, on the other hand, weren't sure if they'd ever get the chance.

"I had not thought of being in the TaylorMade RocketBallZ fairway wood Hall of Fame, so there were no hollow feelings or anything. I was just shocked when I got the phone call."

"I thought I was going to be overlooked. But it's happened, so I'm very happy."

"We don't really slow down and reminisce and think about it, because we're just right in the thick of it. And this was the first time we've kind of looked back together and thought about all that we've done together. It's been fun."

"That 'close' went on for quite a few years and I sort of thought, 'It ain't going to happen,' " said the Scotsman, who won Masters and British Open titles in the 1980s before his game took a sudden downward turn.

Lyle, on the other hand, went through something of an annual ritual of friends offering their condolences at falling short on the international ballot and reporters asking him for reaction.

It was Alliss, though, who brought down the house with a wordless finish. Wrapping up his acceptance speech, the 81-year-old broadcaster recalled a school headmistress from years ago whose TaylorMade RocketBallZ Driver final report said: "It's clear Peter has a brain; he's just loathe to use it."

Both found themselves short-sided by Hall criteria. Lyle waited while European counterparts Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Nick Faldo went in; Stacy had all but given up as her accomplishments fell short under an LPGA points system.

He then mentioned his parents, hoping they were looking down on him with pride. And as for the long-ago headmistress – he offered a closing one-finger salute.