Another insider trading scandal, another brick in the wall for Phil Mickelson’s increasingly inexorable fall from grace. That’s what American critics believe, anyway. The maverick left-hander who has always tried to balance self-immolation tendencies and ridiculous recoveries as a golfer remains, but all is not as it seems.
For now, it must be said that Mickelson, 55, denies charges that he “told” investors on a chat forum about a controversial oil project off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, several hours north of his sprawling family home.
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Mr. Mickelson also requested the assistance of a defamation lawyer to take legal action against those he accused of leaking inside information about Sable Offshore and an impending $200 million investment in the stalled business. In a group chat, he reportedly sent the following message: “Big Daddy Trump is ready to wave 14 inches in front of Newsom’s face and will boost any stock.”
Mickelson, once a Democrat, now has a right-wing online personality and is a supporter of Donald Trump – Getty Images/Charles Laberge
Mickelson has tweeted about Sable Offshore more than 100 times and regularly targets California regulators with protests, but he insists he did not make any deals or break any rules. Hence the action. “I may have been willing to ‘let it go’ before, but I’m no longer willing to sit back and accept it when that line is crossed,” the golfer said.
Inevitably, there will be allusions to its “past”, particularly its 2016 involvement in an insider trading case involving a food company. Although he was ultimately not indicted, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission designated him a “relief defendant” and was forced to return more than $1 million in profits from the trades.
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His former friend, legendary Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters, was sentenced to five years in prison and later claimed that Mickelson would not have been sentenced had he agreed to testify.
“Saudis are scary moms”
That’s when Mickelson’s halo started to slip, and it was mentioned on a recent podcast that went viral. In “What Ever Happened to Phil Mickelson?” Pablo Torre interviews Alan Shipnack. The former is a journalist facing possible lawsuits over the oil spill, and the latter is a longtime golf writer. Phil: The gritty (and unauthorized!) biography of golf’s most colorful superstar.
By the time the book was published in 2022, pre-releases of portions of the book about LIV Golf (a Saudi-funded breakaway league that was in the process of launching) confirmed that Mickelson’s halo had not just slipped away, but was now wrapped around his ankle.
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“Saudis are horrible mothers to get involved with,” Mickelson told Shipnack. “These are horrible mothers to be involved with. We know they murdered (Jamal) Khashoggi and they have a terrible human rights record. They execute people for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I consider it (joining LIV)? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape the way the PGA Tour operates.”
Mickelson’s halo disappeared after joining LIV – Reuters/Paul Childs
These words were uttered almost exactly four years ago, but reading them today still brings back the chills. Mickelson’s reputation is damaged beyond repair, or so they say, and in this latest podcast, Shipnack and Torre discuss his broken legacy.
But Shipnack conceded. telegraph sports In the case of Mickelson, perhaps golf’s greatest escapist along with Seve Ballesteros, the game may never end, so it’s worth analyzing whether he can be classified as an outcast or a legend, or both.
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As far as his profession is concerned, only his most ardent naysayers can deny his position purely in terms of performance. Shipnack’s work was published around the same time that his sensational book was published. sports illustrated Golf correspondent Bob Harig analyzed the rivalry between Mickelson and Tiger Woods.
It was pointed out that Mickelson was never listed alongside his nemesis. But that shouldn’t overshadow his talent.
“He was keeping pace with Tiger.”
“When I was compiling this book, what struck me right away was that even though Tiger had 35 wins (PGA Tour titles) that Phil didn’t come close to, nobody came close to him at the time. I mean, Phil had 45 wins, most of them in Tiger’s time,” Harig said. telegraph sports. “He’s been underrated for a long time because it took him so long to win a major. Tiger had eight wins before Phil had one — and Phil started four years before Tiger.
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“But when he figured it out, he kept pace with Tiger, and with his record-breaking win at the (U.S.) PGA in ’21, the 50-year-old has won a major more recently than Tiger. The only major he hasn’t won is the U.S. Open, but he’s been runner-up six times, so he’s a lifelong man. He has to be ranked as the unluckiest player to not have won a Grand Slam. But still, even before LIV, he was not voted in as a player for the World Championship. “This year, but he’s probably a top 10 player all the time. It must be affecting someone. ”
Shipnack agrees. “He was a kid you couldn’t miss. He won a PGA Tour title when he was an amateur in college, and he beat them pretty good as soon as he turned pro. But then everything changed for him. Tiger came along, and he went from being a headliner to a slightly lower-tier role.”
Mickelson was on top before Tiger Woods came along and changed everything – Getty Images/Harry How
Harig credits Mickelson for always making Woods work harder, or at least narrowing the gap (though Woods’ repeated injuries should also be considered a big factor). But there was one area where he could move closer to being the undisputed number one. It’s earning power.
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“Tiger’s annual salary was about $120 million, while Phil’s annual salary was between $80 and $90 million,” Shipnack said. “He ran some good financial companies and had good relationships with his customers. But all the gambling, the Tyrannosaurus skeleton head that[his wife]Amy bought him, or the meteorite she gave him as a birthday present, he had a lot of burns. There were factors. Billy Waters claims in his book that Phil lost hundreds of millions in gambling. He could have eaten his spoils and become even richer, but he didn’t. “Because Phil doesn’t take things the easy way.
“There’s a story that his public relations manager and some of the tour’s media staff were trying to put out some (media) fire on him for criticizing California taxes. They told him, ‘Look, Phil, no one who’s in trouble wants to hear a guy who makes $40 million a year complaining about money in his pocket.’ Phil thought about that and said, ‘He’s making $50 million a year.’
Mickelson is very generous. Last month, former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar revealed that Mickelson anonymously donated $20,000 to his GoFundMe while he waited for a liver transplant. At the same time, it is unknown that Mickelson donated $7,000 to cover the funeral costs of donor Bryce Dunlap, 21, who died from a brain injury. “There are a lot of stories like that about Phil,” Harig said. “He’s not doing this for publicity.”
While many may find it difficult to identify with the superstar responsible for blowing up professional golf, there is no doubt that his influence was crucial in shaping LIV. Officials said he was offered $200 million to sign and helped create the LIV blueprint.
Sources say Mickelson has been offered $200 million to sign with LIV – PA/Stephen Paston
However, as his statement to Shipnack suggests, he had no confidence in jumping and saw potential leverage in his longstanding dispute with the PGA Tour. For at least a decade, he repeatedly knocked on the commissioner’s door, first with Tim Finchem and then with Jay Monahan, arguing that the game’s biggest names were underpaid. Thanks to his friendship with LIV, he was suspended from the tour even before he hit a ball in the upstart league, but by that point it was a war.
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Many years later, ironically, Mickelson was proven right. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and other tour giants were playing for checks that were three times their size at the time, until a Saudi tank appeared on the country club lawn and shot petrodollars into the clubhouse.
That should improve Mickelson’s image, but his problem is that outside of the majors, he’s out of sight and out of mind for the vast majority of people. LIV has received very little attention compared to the tour, and even though he is playing well enough, in fact, surprisingly for a competitor of his age, the spotlight does not have the shine it once gave him. From personal experience, he, along with fellow Freak Show exhibitor Bryson DeChambeau, remains the person they go to see, but even at LIV there are occasional jeers from the gallery.
Outside the ropes, Mickelson became prolific with X, and his followers witnessed a dramatic change in his politics. Mickelson, a former Democrat who voted for Barack Obama and never supported President Trump during his first term, has flipped. A quick look at his timeline would highlight his new online persona as the Elon Musk of golf.
“History has shown us that the only thing that can stop someone with a gun is that someone else has a gun…”
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“Being an American is a privilege, not a right. This is not immigration, this is invasion.”
These were the two offers from last week. Mickelson has emerged as a hero of the right, and clearly relishes the role. He has long threatened to move to Florida, where taxes are lower, but as Shipnack says, “He loves juice.”
“That’s why he loves gambling, insider trading, pro-am bets and trying out miracle shots,” Shipnack said. “He just loves juice, he loves being the smartest guy in the room, and I think that’s why he called me. He couldn’t help but show how smart he was. He played on both sides, Saudi and Tour, and he needed to make it known. He needed to make it known.”
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“He’ll never forget those words. And now, Phil, in the last 10 years, he’s entered into a later period where he was investigated by the SEC and became a right-wing Internet troll. It’s a mixed legacy, one that he has all created himself.”
There’s a way to pull back, but Mickelson isn’t in control. He receives a legacy from LIV and is an employee of it, which means following the direction Saudi Arabia wants. But in many ways, continuing Mickelson’s legacy requires peace.
Mickelson’s reputation can only be restored if the tour is reconciled – Reuters/Mike Seeger
“The only way for Phil to restore his reputation is for the PGA Tour and LIV to come to an agreement to reunite the sport in some way,” Shipnack said. “Mickelson could then triple the income of his colleagues, give them more say in governance, and win as an agent of change that forced the PGA Tour to improve its product.
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“However, at a time when it seems highly unlikely that the relationship between LIV and the Tour will improve, Mickelson is destined to be remembered as the greedy, duplicitous schemer who destroyed professional golf.”
No matter which side of the fence you sit on, it will be a sad end to a career that brought so much joy to so many people. Does Mickelson care, has his self-esteem been hurt?
“Of course Phil’s ego has suffered,” Shipnack said. “For most of his career, he was revered, and now he’s reviled. He was going to be a Ryder Cup captain, be the voice of golf sitting next to Jim Nantz (NBC commentator) in the tower on the 18th hole, and eventually be an honorary starter at the Masters. With his endorsement, he could have easily cleared $40 million a year and still be cherished.”
“Now all that’s gone and he’s playing irrelevant in a B-list league. That would be a blow to the consummate showman. Still, I don’t think Phil has any regrets. That’s not how he’s wired. In his mind, LIV was a huge success, and now people will realize what a genius he is. And that’s the great, tragic paradox of Phil Mickelson.”
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