It’s Phil’s Fault: Greg Norman Blames LIV Woes On Mickelson

Phil Mickelson and his best friend, Greg Norman,  just keep sinking deeper in the proverbial Quicksand Of Controversy.

After Lefty’s revelation this past February that he basically consorted with Greg Norman and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series, he’s gone into hiding, leaving the world of golf to wonder when the reigning PGA champion might, you know, actually show up in public with clubs in hand.

We got that answer last week when a slightly heavier, bearded Mickelson showed up at Rancho Santa Fe for some range work along with some playing time on the course.  And that leads some to believe that Thumbs Up Lefty might actually show up at Southern Hills in 16 days.

In the meantime, La Merde (that’s French for excrement) is still flowing through the old fan and now The Lamest Commissioner In The Land — and that would be Norman his ownself — is blaming the sputtering of his Saudi-backed golf league on the reigning PGA champion.

Sharky (aka The Lamest Commissioner In The Land) threw Thumbs Up Lefty under the old bus this week in an interview with ESPN.com

“There’s no question (Mickelson) hurt,” was how Norman began with the four-letter network’s online folks.  “It hurt a lot of aspects.  It hurt the PGA Tour.  It hurt us.  It hurt the game of golf.  It hurt Phil.  So yeah, across all fronts.  It wasn’t just specifically to us.  But it definitely created negative momentum against us.”

Okay, let’s interrupt The Lamest Commissioner In The Land for a quick fact check.  Norman’s LIV launch was supposed to take place Tuesday or Wednesday, February 14 or 15 — Mickelson’s comments from his interview with Alan Shipnuck from the Fire Pit Collective — weren’t made public until Thursday, February 17.

Hmmmmmm.  Cue The Brothers Osborne singing  “It Ain’t May Fault” — Norman’s new theme song.

So Norman implied that Lefty’s interview, where he referred to the Saudis as “scary mother-fuckers” was public before the 17th.  It was not.

The Lamest Commissioner In The Land claimed he had 30 percent, which would equate to 15 of the world’s top 50 players, committed to the LIV Series prior to Lefty’s plunge into The Quicksand Of Controversy.  Norman further claimed some players “already had money in their pockets” at that time and ended up giving the dough back after the PGA Tour made its stance public that any such defector would face possible lifetime suspension.

Thus, instead of a grand, 14-event schedule and fields full of top 100 players, Norman and his Saudi pals waited about a month and released a revised eight-tournament schedule on March 16 with no player names.

“We had enough players in our strength of field, or minimal viable product, ready to come on board,” Norman said. “And when all of that happened, everybody got the jitters, and the PGA Tour threatened people with lifetime bans and stuff like that.”

What we do know is that the first event of this LIV Series will be played June 9-11 at the Centurion Golf Club outside London.  UK folks are shocked over the ticket prices reported to be VERY expensive — 85 pounds for a daily pass, which translates to about $106.  Yikes!!  And there’s no television for this stuff, something The Lamest Commissioner In The Land was unable to secure.

It’s known that Mickelson and the great Robert Garrigus have asked for waivers to play in London and reportedly Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood and perhaps non-denying, denying Kevin Na as well.  Per The Lamest Commissioner In The Land, he has “more than 200” players registered, including “about 15” of the world’s top 100.

“To this day, we still have players under contract and signed,” said Commissioner Sharky.  “The ones who wanted to get out because of the pressure of the PGA Tour, gave back their money and got out. Guys had money in their pockets.”

So just to make sure there are no hard feelings, even though he trashed Thumbs Up Lefty, The Lamest Commissioner In The Land gave us this:

“He’s (Mickelson) always going to have an open door.  It’s going to be his decision, his decision only. He’s got a few things he has to work out himself, obviously, with the PGA Tour and where he wants to go with them and how he wants to go with them. I can’t read Phil’s mind because I haven’t spoken with him. From our perspective, I’m always going to be consistent in that I respect Phil. I respect what he’s done for the game of golf, and he’s always going to have an open door to any golf tournament he wants to go play as far as I’m concerned.”

And a final note to The Lamest Commissioner In The Land, and his “it hurt the game of golf” declaration —  golf courses are packed, equipment is selling as fast as it can be produced and more people are taking up our wonderful game.

Someone needs to point that out to Greg Norman, The Lamest Commissioner In The Land.