LIV Golf nearly collapsed after alleged Phil Mickelson comments - 'Everyone's walking away'
LIV Golf almost struggled to take off after an alleged comment made by Phil Mickelson made some of golf's top stars wary of the Saudi-backed tour
Phil Mickelson nearly sunk LIV Golf before it got going after the six-time major winner allegedly branded Saudi chiefs "scary motherf*****s."
The 53-year-old is one of many top golf stars who jumped ship from the PGA Tour to the Saudi rebels - but he nearly scared some off with his claim when referring to the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, and the kingdom's horrific treatment of the LGBT community.
"Scary motherf*****s," was Mickelson 's reported assessment of the Saudi chiefs. However, he has since claimed that he 'never did' the interview with his biographer Alan Shipnuck which caused panic.
"So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck," the American said. "And I find that my experience with everybody associated with LIV Golf has been nothing but incredibly positive and I have the utmost respect for everybody that I've been involved with.”
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Despite being one of the first big names to make the move to LIV Golf and not look back, Mickelson hasn't managed to win on the new Tour yet. his HyFlyers missed out on the team title after finishing third in Adelaide, finishing five shots behind the leading two teams.
Mickelson's teammate Brendan Steele did land his first LIV win by clinching the individual title in Adelaide, though, in a major boost to HyFlyers. The American held a one-shot lead heading into Sunday's final 18 holes, before paying tribute to team captain Mickelson.
"Yeah, I lean on Phil pretty hard with everything," Steele said. "With how to hit shots around the green, how to approach things. He's one of the best players ever, and he can give me advice. If he's going to give me advice, I'm going to take it. I definitely want to listen to him, and he's helped me a ton with everything from wedge play, short game, mental game. Just instilling confidence in myself, and he's a big reason I'm sitting up here."
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A potential merger between the PGA, LIV Golf and DP World Tour is still on the cards too, ending years of civil war since the breakaway tour sent shockwaves through the sport. Mickelson and PGA loyalist Rory McIlroy haven't seen eye-to-eye on LIV Golf but the pair seem to be in agreement on its disruption.
“I know this isn’t a be-all, end-all, but if you look at the TV ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they’re down 20 percent across the board,” he said. “That’s a fifth. That’s big. I would say the numbers on LIV aren’t great either in terms of the people tuning in. I just think with the fighting and everything that’s went on over the past couple years, people are just getting really fatigued of it and it’s turning people off men’s professional golf, and that’s not a good thing for anyone.
"It’s going to be really interesting to see how the four major championships do, or even the three because put Augusta aside, I think that sort of lives in its own world. It will be really interesting to see how the major championship numbers fare compared to the other bigger events because there’s an argument to be made if the numbers are better and you’ve got all the best players in the world playing, then there’s an argument to say ‘OK, we need to get this thing back together'."
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