As golfers gear up to compete in the first LIV Golf event this week in London, Phil Mickelson declared he would leave the PGA Tour.
The 2013 Open champion shot a 72 on Thursday in a setting he adores and said that, despite the startup’s ongoing controversy, he “couldn’t be happier” with his choice to join LIV Golf.
How Is Phil Mickelson Doing? Did He Retire?
Next week at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the current PGA Championship champion Phil Mickelson will not be defending his title because he hasn’t competed in more than three months.
The PGA of America announced Mickelson’s withdrawal from the PGA Championship on Friday. Following his inflammatory remarks about the Saudi Arabia-based Super Golf League, Mickelson left the sport three months ago. In April, he withdrew from the master.
Six-time major champion Mickelson missed the Masters last month for the first time since 1994. He has won the tournament three times.
By winning the PGA at Kiawah Island in South Carolina last year at 50, Mickelson set a record for the oldest major winner in golf history. Since missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in late January, he hasn’t competed on the PGA Tour.
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Phil Mickelson PGA Drama And The Open Broadcast Cut
After his provocative remarks regarding the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian funders of a breakaway circuit were published by author Alan Shipnuck, whose unofficial biography of the golfer known as “Lefty” will be published next week, Mickelson has decided to take a hiatus from the sport.
Mickelson slammed the PGA Tour for its “greed” and said he was ignoring reported human rights abuses by the Saudi Arabian monarchy to acquire influence with the tour.
Mickelson is just the fourth golfer in the past 50 years, according to ESPN Stats & Information, to decide without defending his major championship the following year.
The previous one was Rory McIlroy 2015, who was forced to skip The Open after hurting his ankle playing soccer just before the competition. After winning the PGA Championship in 2006 and 2007, Woods missed the 2008 edition because he was still healing from knee surgery. The 1999 U.S. Open champion, Payne Stewart, perished in a plane crash in October 1999.
