AUGUSTA, Georgia – Phil Mickelson was not disinvited from the Masters, Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley told the media on Wednesday in his annual pre-tournament press conference. Ridley said the three-time Masters champion informed him via text message that he would not be competing in this year’s tournament.
Mickelson announced in February that he was taking a leave of absence from golf. He last competed in January at the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open.
“Phil reached out to me, I think it was in late February, early March, and let me know that he did not intend to play,” said Ridley. “That was by way of a text. And I thanked him for his courtesy in letting me know. I told him that we certainly appreciated that and, you know, told him that I was certainly willing to discuss that further with him if he’d like, and he thanked me, and we had a very cordial exchange.”
Mickelson finds himself in the midst of a heated controversy for derogatory comments he made to Golf Digest and Fire Pit Collective about the PGA Tour and its commissioner, Jay Monahan, as well as the Saudi Arabia regime that’s backing a breakaway league led by Greg Norman.
Mickelson told the Fire Pit Collective that he hoped to use the rival league as leverage against the PGA Tour and its “obnoxious greed.”
Ridley was asked to give his stance on rival leagues and whether or not a player’s participation would preclude them from an invitation to the Masters.
“I would start by saying that our mission is always to act in the best interests of the game in whatever form that may take,” said Ridley. “I think that golf’s in a good place right now. There’s more participation. Purses on the professional tours are the highest they have ever been. Clubs and courses, I think are in healthy financial positions. … We have been pretty clear in our belief that the world tours have done a great job in promoting the game over the years.”
Beyond that, Ridley said, there was not much more he could say.
In his statement from February, Mickelson said he has felt the pressure and stress affecting him on a deeper level.
“I know I have not been my best,” wrote Mickelson, “and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”
