Cameron Smith holed a seven-foot putt to eliminate Phil Mickelson from the LIV Golf team finale - before throwing in one last dig to end a season like no other.
Mickelson's status as golf's new pariah could scarcely have been believed when he was mobbed by euphoric Kiawah Island galleries after becoming the oldest major winner just 18 months ago at the PGA Championship. But after positioning himself in the centre of the LIV storm that has thrown the sport into chaos, the headlines no longer concern Lefty's abilities on the course.
The six-time major winner became engulfed in golf's bitter civil war in a year where he has accused the PGA Tour of 'obnoxious greed', signed for the rebel LIV series and made inflammatory comments about the Saudi Arabian regime that is bankrolling the contentious venture.
Mickelson did have a chance to end his season, that has included a four month hiatus from competitive golf, on a high as the LIV series rolled into into Miami for its closing event. But his 'Hy Flyers' were knocked out of the Team Championship following his defeat to Open champion Smith on the final hole on Friday.
Teams are competing for a huge £43m prize pot at former US President Donald Trump's Blue Monster course at Doral to end LIV's inaugural year. But Mickelson will not take part in Sunday's finale after losing his singles match to Smith on the final green. And world No.3 Smith's Punch GC now take on teams led by captains Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen and Brooks Koepka in a four-team shootout.
Mickelson's final blow in a tumultuous season was delivered by Smith, who accused the 52-year-old of 'painful' gamesmanship in their match.
"Yeah, it was a good match," Smith said. "I think Phil maybe had some gamesmanship in there a little bit. He seemed to take forever today. I think we were three or four holes behind, so that was a bit painful. But other than that, it was good."
Mickelson will compete more regularly next year when LIV expands to 14 events as the series continues to disrupt golf's traditional ecosystem. And he has been impressed at the progress Greg Norman's fledgling series has made in a short period.
"I’m pretty surprised at how far LIV has come because there was a lot of uncertainty, like who would play in London," Mickelson said. “You look at the strength of the league now and you have a lot of really strong players and you have a lot of really strong characters in the game. Whether you love them or hate them, there's a lot of guys here that people want to see.
“Internationally, there's a lot of support and desire to have tournaments. We're having a lot of current tournaments on multiple tours coming to us wanting a LIV event, we only have 14 so it's not like we have a lot to go around, but we're going to have an exciting year next year with a lot of strong play and a lot of strong tournaments."
