BROOKLINE, Mass. — Phil Mickelson is at The Country Club this week and before wondering about his chances to win the U.S. Open — they aren’t good, according to the experts — ask yourself a simple question.
Why is he here?
To win the last remaining major title he’s yet to win and secure the grand slam of golf at 52 years old — that’s the easy answer.
To have his cake and eat it too — that’s the real answer.
Mickelson stood at The Country Club podium for about 30 minutes on Monday afternoon and yet barely said anything. He rarely answered the questions asked of him, but routinely snapped at any reporters who asked questions in two parts.
“I don’t like it when you keep asking multiple questions,” Mickelson said several times.
He offered little explanation for his decision to join the LIV Golf tour, where the same 48 players compete over and over in a short schedule of events that guarantee golfers more money than some have made in their entire careers on the PGA Tour. He deflected questions about the Saudi-backed blood-stained money that he’ll be paid to defect.
He thinks it doesn’t matter what he does, that he’s entitled to staying on the PGA Tour and playing in any events he chooses even though he, along with the others who left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, have been banned until further notice.
“I’ve worked hard to earn a lifetime membership, I’ve worked hard to give back to the PGA Tour and the game of golf throughout my 30-plus years of professional golf, and I’ve earned that lifetime membership, so I believe that it should be my choice,” he said.
If there’s any credit to be given to Mickelson for his words on Monday, it’s that he said what we’ve all been wanting him to say: he did it for the money.
“I think that there’s an obvious incredible financial commitment,” said Mickelson, who has won nearly $100 million in prize money during his storied career on the PGA Tour but will reportedly make $200 million just for showing up to LIV Golf events, which, unlike the PGA Tour, doesn’t require the golfers to actually perform well in order to get paid.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan called it “exhibition golf,” and he’s not wrong.
Mickelson also praised the smaller schedule and ability to “grow the game” while pointing to some young people who came out to see him play in the first LIV event in London last week. By all accounts, attendance was sparse at the event and LIV was giving away tickets to lure folks to the course.
Meanwhile in Brookline, the course was overflowing with fans on Monday, the first day of practice rounds. The cheapest ticket one could find on the secondary market was over $400 for a single day of tournament play.
So why is Phil here?
Last year, he won the PGA Championship at 50 years old, becoming the oldest player ever to win a major. Nobody over the age of 45 has ever won the U.S. Open.
But in his mind, his legacy is already built.
“I’ve done all I can to help contribute to the game, contribute to the PGA Tour during my time with them, and that’s all I can do,” he said Monday.
Mickelson is too thoughtful, too intelligent, too self-centered to not understand what he’s gotten himself into.
He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Which means Mickelson has either come to terms with the fact he sold his soul to the devil and begrudgingly swallowed his fate for the greater good of his bank account, or, consider this for a moment: he actually likes being hated.
Without anyone dominating the sport the way Tiger Woods once did, golf needs a villain as badly as it needs a hero. And leave it to Mickelson, who has just three wins on the PGA Tour in the last nine years, to shake things up a little.
His prime money-making days are over. If he’s craving attention and trying to dig himself out of a hole because of his self-admitted gambling troubles, why not take the bag the Saudis are offering while making himself the infamous outlaw of golf?
He’ll lose fans, and he knows that. He’ll feel it in Boston this week, too.
Anybody with a working brain and a beating heart should lose some respect for him, and more will develop a firm hatred for the man. But don’t doubt for a second that some people will love him for it.
His oldest and most loyal fans, the ones who came to love him for his everyman charm and his position as Tiger’s most feared competitor, are the ones most likely to turn on him. He isn’t good for the PGA Tour. He isn’t good for American golf. And he isn’t good for the greater wealth of humanity.
Maybe one day he’ll be forgiven. Tiger was forgiven after his off-the-course trouble. Athletes are forgiven all the time.
Why does this one feel different?
Because it’s personal.
It’s personal to anyone who has cared about the PGA Tour and watched it excel largely thanks to Tiger and Phil. It’s personal to those who rooted for Phil in the Ryder Cup, who have seen him represent the stars and stripes with class and dignity, who are now watching that same man take money from a foreign government with an atrocious human rights record while simultaneously aiding the growth of a league with direct intentions to destroy the one largely built on American soil.
It’s personal to anyone who has watched him play a PGA event and loved golf more because of it.
He’s such a longshot to win the U.S. Open this week that most gambling sites don’t even have the option to bet on him. Or you can bet $100 to win $10,000 on Mickelson on the popular betting site, Bovada.
So again, why is he in Brookline this week?
