Tiger Woods has weighed in on the saga surrounding long-time rival Phil Mickelson, as he revealed he hasn’t reached out to his fellow American due to having a ‘completely different stance’ on his attitude to the PGA Tour. Mickelson has remained distant from the world of golf, after being widely criticised for comments surrounding the newly introduced LIV Golf Series, and his opinions on the PGA Tour.
The 51-year-old was seen as the Saudi-backed circuit’s flagship player at the turn of the year, after launching a public attack on the PGA Tour, accusing the circuit of ‘obnoxious greed’.
Mickelson’s controversy then hit new heights back in February, as he described the state of Saudi Arabia as ‘scary mother f*****s’ due to their poor human rights record, but implied he was willing to look past that in order to ‘gain leverage’ over the PGA Tour - the circuit in which he had spent nearly his whole career competing on, earning £77 million in winnings in the process.
This left the American’s once glittering legacy in tatters, prompting him to announce that he would take a break from competitive golf. Despite his exile, Mickelson was expected to return to defend his PGA Championship at Southern Hills last week, but withdrew late last week.
In spite of his absence, the 2021 champion is still the name on everybody’s lips this week, and Woods has now had his say on the controversy. When asked if he had reached out to Mickelson during his time away, Woods said: “I have not reached out to him, I have not spoken to him.”
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Going on to discuss the matter at hand, he added: “A lot is not to do with personal issues, it was our viewpoints on how the tour should be run and could be run, and what players are playing for and how we play for it. I have a completely different stance on that, and so I have not.”
Woods was then pressed on whether he had any more thoughts specifically related to Mickelson’s situation, but insisted he didn’t know what his old rival was ‘going though’. “I don’t know what he is going through.” the 15-time major champion commented.
“I know that the comments he made about the tour and the way it should be run or could be run differently, and all the different financials that could have happened, I just have a very different opinion on that and so no I haven’t reached out to him.” Woods will kick off his championship as part of the flagship group on Thursday, when he joins Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth at 2:11pm BST.
