Rory McIlroy is one of the nicest guys on the PGA Tour so it was funny to hear him say that he didn’t want to kick Phil Mickelson while Lefty was down — but did it anyway.
In case you missed it, Rory, politely, gave Phil the ole Irish Shillelagh right upside his sunglass-wearing noggin:
“I don’t want to kick someone while he’s down, obviously, but I thought they were naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant,” McIlroy said. “A lot of words to describe that interaction he had with (writer Alan) Shipnuck. It was just very surprising and disappointing, sad. I’m sure he’s sitting at home sort of rethinking his position and where he goes from here.”
All hell broke loose for Greg Norman and the Saudis last week when Mickelson basically revealed that he was sort of a Benedict Arnold but in actuality, he was totally using Norman and the Saudis to try and get his way with the PGA Tour.
“Leverage” was how Mickelson referred to his latest bruhaha with the Tour.
How incredibly dumb. Revealing that it was only for “leverage” basically takes away any thought of leverage Lefty hoped to proport.
Is Mickelson really that dumb? Well, when you look back at the Dean Foods/insider trading fiasco, the answer might be, well, Heck Yes.
Greg Norman’s proposed utopia of an alternative golf universe came to a crashing demise when basically everyone short of Saudi Golf ambassador Jason Kokrak pledged total allegiance to Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour.
We’re still trying to figure out who Kramer Hickok’s Magical Seventeen were. Sure wasn’t anyone you’d care about.
No Jon Rahm, no Collin, no Bryson, no D.J., no Rory — no anyone wanting anything to do with Norman and his Band Of Saudi Henchmen.
Sorry Slugger White, you’ll have to come out of retirement somewhere else.
Note to Donald Trump — there will be no Saudi League events at your golf properties.
Note to Greg Norman — hope they paid you up front.
Note to Phil Mickelson: what will you do for an encore to further blemish your fading reputation?
Good news is we don’t have to pay much more attention to the Crown Prince and his plan to pillage the Public Investment Fund of his country.
More good news is that Fire Pit Collective writer Alan Shipnuck is releasing an “unauthorized” biography of Mickelson entitled: “Phil — A Rip-Roarin’ Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar.”
Shipnuck should rethink the title and come up with something like: “Lefty — Dumb As A Box Of Rocks And Getting Nothing From This Book!” With that as the revised title, Rory McIlroy could write the introduction. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
So Lefty can go back to bitching about media rights and pretty soon he can start bitching about not making any royalties from Shipnuck’s book about him.
Going back to Rory’s public beheading of Mickelson — Rors brought up a good point. Where does Phil go from here?
It’s clearly evident that all the young stars of the PGA Tour basically thumbed their noses at him, along with the Saudi Golf League that he was pretending to be so interested in joining.
There will no doubt be other fallout from Mickelson’s behavior toward the Tour and his flirtations with the dirty-money Saudis. The most bantered word by the players after all of this in reference to Mickelson is “Toxic.”
Perhaps if/and/when Mickelson builds that oceanfront house on Jupiter Island, he can build a guest house for Norman.
The two of them totally deserve each other.
Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, Mickelson issued an “official” statement. It was obviously crafted by one of those “crisis intervention” PR firms. KPMG has ended its relationship with him — dropped him like a hot rock. His Workday deal is in trouble. Callaway remains silent (he has a lifetime contract with them). You can see Phil’s “statement” in our “Other News” section. Phil’s obviously gone into hiding (from the Saudis?) and who knows when he’ll have the nerve to show up and play in a tournament. The Masters? The “What Will Phil Do Next” watch is on.
10 Comments
baxter cepeda
I’m still not sure what this means for the long or short term future of the proposed new league, but who cares, what matters today is the future of one man, Phil Mickelson.
What a day this Tuesday was thanks (yet again) to Lefty. Not in a good way.
His long apology sounded sincere, but whom was it for?
The most powerful part of his statement was admitting to a decade of pressure building up and needing to go on a hiatus to improve himself. Of course that’s convenient since he wants to avoid people right now. And not sure he feels welcome anywhere at this point anyway. Still it is just so sad to think this great man has made such a mess for himself. I sincerely wish him well.
I just hope cooler heads can prevail in this golf drama moving forward. Hope People can forgive and learn to work together again.
#pray4golf
Tom Edrington
Baxter, you may be the only one who has deemed Phil’s “crafted” apology sincere….KPMG has dropped him, he’s in trouble with Workday….Phil’s basically gone into hiding.
baxter cepeda
Tripp at first said it was apology enough. So did tony and mike. But I said sounded sincere because as you start looking at it more carefully you wonder who he is even apologizing to, the pga tour or the Saudis.
What I did say is Phil is in a mess. And again just hope all these people can work things out.
Tom Edrington
Truth be known, Phil has most likely been suspended by the PGA Tour; The Tour never confirms suspensions or fines, so Phil uses the term he’s “stepping away” for a while….he was basically told to. He’s toxic; If he shows up at The Masters it will be a zoo. Will PGA of America bring him in a month ahead of PGA for Media Day? Doubt it…..you will enjoy our upcoming feature, working on it as I write this.
baxter cepeda
Very likely he’s already suspended.
But I still believe he is in a tough place mentally and truly needs to step away on his own.
IMO a fair settlement for this whole mess is a whole year suspended from the pga tour; or something like that. But my hope is eventually the pga tour invites Phil back. And that there isn’t bigger messes to come.
Such a sad day yesterday. So sad to think of all the things one of the most beloved golfers will miss because of this.
While it is hard to defend Phil, I will reiterate IMO if the pga tour is a true independent contractor system, the pga tour should let it’s athletes come and go as they please so long as they maintain membership. I just always assumed that’s mostly how it worked. But of course I have been learning for a while now it’s not quite like that at all. Players can skip events for graduations on the pga tour but not to freely do their independent contractor work elsewhere. Not even close.
Tom Edrington
The Tour has the BEST retirement/pension plan in all the major sports, pretty nice for 1099 guys. Chamblee believes Lefty probably has $250 million in pension benefits. Sadly Lefty has bitten the hand that helped him make hundreds of millions of dollars. Stay tuned for the next feature when the truth about Lefty is unveiled.
rufustelestrats@gmail.com
Funny, the perspective I have is he was trying to work the PGA for leverage, and it was a ploy all along. Problem with going all in on something like this is the possibility that it will taint you and your reputation if not successful.
Norman has nothing to loose, has not played competitive golf in years, and not sure if still designing courses in the US, but Mickelson should have considered the possible blowback for his actions, not after the fact. For someone as savvy in the media this seems like a neophyte mistake.
Unless it was intended to solidify the PGA, and tank the Saudi League, and had the full blessing of the Commissioner in secret.
Tom Edrington
Problem Phil has had is an over-riding need for everyone to think he’s the smartest guy in the room — this is pure evidence that he is not. Has no one close to him to tell him he was dead wrong, even his so called apology left out the PGA Tour…for the record, we always use the moniker PGA Tour, the PGA is the association for the hard-working club professionals — men and women who work and teach the game….lots of respect for them as their incomes are meager compared to PGA Tour stars!
baxter cepeda
You don’t really think that long, rambling, self incriminating statement was written by a professional PR form, do you ?
No way. That was all Phil.
Tom Edrington
No way, Phil can’t put six paragraphs together, wasn’t an English major at ASU.