What did Phil Mickelson do?

doubledragon

I keep seeing these stories about Phil Mickelson in the news, what did he say? I know it has something to do with Saudi Arabia golf, but I don't follow golf too closely.

doubledragon

He issued this statement recently.

Justacommeman

He really stepped in it this time. He lost one major sponsor and will lose others. Says he will be stepping away from good for awhile. Giant stain on his legacy

m

dallasactuary

Ol' Phil made the mistake of speaking the truth, and that's hard to come back from in this day and age. On the plus side for Phil, what he said won't cost him a single fan, and might even get him some more. On the down side, corporate sponsors don't care about the fans, or the truth.

MsMorrisine

KPMG became the first to announce an end to its partnership with Mickelson, a decision the company said was mutual. "We wish him the best," KPMG said in an email to The Associated Press. Amstel Light also ended its sponsorship relationship with Mickelson.

galaxy27

@doubledragon i'll try to give you an abridged response. ah screw it, no i won't. but if you truly want to know the backstory, i'm prepared to give it to you. and i'll preface the following by saying that Phil Mickelson has always been one of my favorite contemporary golfers. but as i type this, i'm spellbound in a very negative way by what has transpired with him the past week or so.

Mickelson is a swashbuckler. on and off the course. always has been, always will be. many more times than not, people find that aspect of him endearing. but when you're as candid as he consistently is, and when you publicize your life the way he consistently has, things said and done are bound to backfire on you at some point. this is one such instance.

for years there have been rumors of a rival tour forming overseas and thus putting the pressure on the PGA Tour by attempting to siphon off the best players. in the past year or so, it became readily apparent that those rumors were on the verge of becoming a reality. it's a Saudi-backed golf league, and the capital used in this venture was reported to be $3 billion. i'm not going to spend a lot of time delving into that particular country's history of human rights, because unless you've been living under a rock the majority of your life then you're already aware of the innumerable atrocities. but suffice to say it's blood money.

so not only was Mickelson willing to overlook the aforementioned, but he even hired attorneys to draw up the blueprint for this proposed league. in other words, he was one of the creators. a man who has made a reported $100 million on the course and close to $900 million away from it since joining the PGA Tour was doing his very best to undermine it.

for weeks and months it was clear that he was warming up to the idea of some fresh competition based on comments he made. he publicly excoriated the PGA Tour for its "obnoxious greed," claiming that his slice of the media rights pie isn't as large as it should be. but unbeknownst to many, he was taking it a step further by rolling up his sleeves behind closed doors in an attempt to stick it to the tour that made him filthy ass rich.

well, pop tarts officially slammed into the fan a few days ago when a golf writer named Alan Shipnuck released an excerpt from an interview he had with Mickelson for a biography he was writing about him. in it, Phil said the following:

“They’re scary mother (insert six-letter obscenity here) to get involved with,” he said. “We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates. They’ve [the PGA Tour] been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse. As nice a guy as [PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won’t do what’s right. And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage. I’m not sure I even want [the SGL] to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the [PGA] Tour.”

Of his desire to gain possession of media rights:

“They are sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of digital content we could be using for our social media feeds. The players need to own all of that. We played those shots, we created those moments, we should be the ones to profit. The Tour doesn’t need that money. They are already sitting on an $800 million cash stockpile. How do you think they’re funding the PIP? Or investing $200 million in the European Tour? The Tour is supposed to be a nonprofit that distributes money to charity. How the (hell) is it legal for them to have that much cash on hand? The answer is, it’s not. But they always want more and more. They have to control everything. Their ego won’t allow them to make the concessions they need to.”

a few guys on tour who are members of the player advisory council vehemently disputed those remarks.

everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but my personal take is that i can't believe that those words exited the mouth of a man who has enough money for his family and many generations to come. in fact, i think there is much more to it. i personally think Phil has completely lost his way. i think he is having a difficult time coping with the fact that his best days are behind him, which is not uncommon for an athlete near the top of his/her sport. but the great thing about professional golf is that when it's time to retire, you don't actually retire. you simply lower the bar and move on to the Champions tour. most welcome that transition and are grateful for it, but i sense that Phil is being pulled while kicking and screaming.

so if you're not mentally prepared to play with the old farts full time, what's the next best alternative? swallowing your integrity with one gigantic gulp and accepting millions of filthy dollars to play in a precursor league before that time comes. it actually makes a lot of sense from a financial perspective depending on what career stage you're in, but you best be careful whom you're accepting money from. and you best be even more careful whom you explicitly drag under the bus in the process. unless your tenure as a player and the legacy you leave behind matters not to you, that is.

as for the SGL (Saudi Golf League), it is slowly sinking in quicksand because none of the top talent on the PGA Tour is willing to sell their souls to the devil. last weekend, two guys who were rumored to be open to the idea and were confronted with substantial offers -- Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau -- came out publicly and pledged their allegiance to the PGA Tour. so basically there's no one left worth mentioning to make it a go, and that in turn places Phil Mickelson on a very precarious island -- all by himself.

whether you agree with PM or not, everyone can come to a consensus that it's a sad state of affairs for him. a modern-day Arnold Palmer is becoming persona non grata right before our very eyes. no doubt a covert suspension is forthcoming (golf is unlike other sports in that punishment is never made known), and no doubt Phil has squandered a large of portion -- if not all -- of the goodwill he has generated over the years. will he recover from this? remains to be seen. a lot of players interviewed about this subject have expressed empathy, while others have not minced words. guys like Rory McIlroy and Billy Horschel uttered adjectives like "naïve," "selfish," "egotistical," "ignorant," and "idiotic."

that is a long-winded answer to your question, mr. doubledragon. i'm sorry (not sorry).

countdouglas

@galaxy27 I appreciate that explanation. I was wondering exactly as DD was as to what was causing the various PM headlines, and had no idea really about any of that, as I barely follow golf.

doubledragon

Yes, @galaxy27, thank you for that very detailed explanation. I am taken aback by this, Phil Mickelson is so popular, the way the fans follow him around on the course you would think he was Happy Gilmore. For the record, I would not have accepted Saudi Arabia's blood money, I think you all know what I would've done.