Ian O'Connor

Ian O'Connor

Golf

Phil Mickelson, PGA Tour both proving they’ve always been about the money

Phil Mickelson just told you exactly what he has been for his entire career — a money machine, a human ATM, a golfer who always saw the journey from tee to green as a transactional event. His eye contact with fans, and his permanent thumbs-up, and his post-round autograph sessions were all part of the pitch. 

While Tiger Woods played for his trophy case, Mickelson played for his bank account. That’s why Tiger has 15 major titles and Phil has six. 

Monday, Mickelson officially joined the dysfunctional LIV Golf family for this week’s inaugural tournament in London. As you might have heard, the new tour is backed by the financial muscle behind Saudi Arabia’s oppressive regime, and fronted by Greg Norman, who has wanted to take down the PGA Tour since the 1990s. 

On one level, Lefty and the Shark deserve each other. They have long been two of the most full-of-you-know-what guys in professional golf. 

But as Mickelson gets pounded yet again for a move he didn’t have to make, it is worth noting that the PGA Tour has no moral authority in this fight. By promising to punish and ban players who choose to sample the LIV life, the tour isn’t making any greater stand against human rights violations in Saudi Arabia than it made against human rights violations in China, a longtime business partner. 

Phil Mickelson has shown what truly drives him after agreeing to play for LIV golf. Post photo illustration

The tour is merely trying to protect its bottom line. This is a money game to commissioner Jay Monahan, just like it’s a money game to Mickelson. Don’t let any of golf’s guardians fool you. The PGA Tour sees LIV Golf the way the NFL once saw the USFL: 

As competition that needs to be crushed. 

LIV Golf reportedly offered Jack Nicklaus more than $100 million to run the operation (Nicklaus passed), reportedly offered Dustin Johnson $125 million to play (DJ didn’t pass) and, according to one Golf Channel report, paid Mickelson an astounding $200 million to sign up. Lord knows how much the Saudis were willing to pay Tiger Woods to rock the sports world to its core, break from the tour, and hobble around a few LIV events. 

Sergio Garcia? Lee Westwood? Louis Oosthuizen? Ian Poulter? Kevin Na? 

No, after Mickelson and Johnson, the headliners aren’t exactly Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Jon Rahm. LIV’s first tournament out of the gate is largely headlined by fading stars. 

Greg Norman speaks at a press conference for the LIV tournament in London. Action Images via Reuters

On the other hand, Norman and friends have defied the doubters who predicted LIV would open as a clown show littered with anonymous hacks. “It’s dead in the water in my opinion,” McIlroy said in February. 

The Shark needed one whale, and landed two in Lefty and DJ, among the top three all-time PGA Tour money winners (behind Woods, of course). If the London no-cut field of 48 lacks high-powered talents in their prime, it does have legit name recognition, and a few entrants with a history of selling tickets. 

The tour tried to terminate this threat by pumping up purses (The Players Championship to a record $20 million), and by installing bonus initiatives, including the $50 million Player Impact Program, designed to reward those who move the social media needle. But by forbidding up-front cash in the form of appearance fees, the tour always left itself open to this kind of LIV challenge. 

This isn’t Aaron Judge breaking his guaranteed Yankees contract in the middle of a season to play a few weekend series in a rival league. The Tigers and Phils and Rorys are independent contractors who are guaranteed nothing at the start of a season, or at the start of a tournament. In its play-for-pay arena, the PGA Tour has forever prioritized the middle- and lower-class player, the faceless pro who doesn’t drive sponsor investment and who doesn’t persuade any family of four to spend a day at the golf course buying food, drink and merch. 

Phil Mickelson Getty Images

At 51, old enough to know that last year’s PGA Championship would likely stand as his final victory, and tired of screaming about the tour’s stranglehold on media rights, Mickelson took the blood money and ran. He apologized on Twitter for the comments he made to biographer Alan Shipnuck, who had quoted Mickelson calling his future Saudi business partners “scary motherf–kers” and effectively admitting he was overlooking the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi (among other atrocities) as the necessary cost of leveraging Saudi money against the tour. 

Mickelson said in his post that he had been humbled, that he had undergone therapy in an attempt to become a better man, and that he’s ready to end his self-imposed exile from the game for “a fresh start, one that is exciting for me at this stage of my career and is clearly transformative, not just for myself, but ideally for the game and my peers.” Lefty also said that he plans to still compete in the majors; the USGA should absolutely let him tee it up at the U.S. Open next week in Brookline, Mass. 

In the end, fans will either abandon Mickelson over this Faustian deal, or stick with one of the most entertaining golfers of them all because the U.S. government and many American companies also do business with the Saudis. 

Either way, don’t forget that, like Lefty, the PGA Tour only cares about the money too.