Phil Mickelson laments short game, mulls LIV’s future

If you needed another reminder of professional golf’s new chapter, on Wednesday Phil Mickelson joined a conference call previewing LIV Golf’s upcoming Illinois event and the first question of the call was about an upcoming YouTube challenge, Pros vs. Schmos, for which Mickelson will serve as host.

“Well, I’m very new to this, and YouTube isn’t really the world I grew up in,” Mickelson said. “I’m kind of learning a lot from Bryson, who’s really spearheaded a phenomenal campaign on YouTube and a great following, and I’m trying to learn as we go.”

“Bryson,” of course, refers to Bryson DeChambeau, whose summer has included winning the U.S. Open and cracking one million YouTube subscribers. Until recently Mickelson would only have considered one of those a target. But times have changed. Golf has changed. Mickelson has, too.

Wednesday’s call was ostensibly about LIV’s upcoming individual championship, which is coming to a municipal course in Bolingbrook — some 30 miles southwest of Chicago — in mid-September. But given Mickelson’s presence and willingness to chat it quickly pivoted to his place in the game and how he sees LIV’s future.

Part of that future, in his mind, is initiatives like Pros vs. Schmos.

“What I see it being is a great opportunity to interact and engage on a more intimate level with the fan base,” Mickelson said. Prospective contestants can submit video entries, two winners will be selected and their showdown with Mickelson will be recorded for content purposes. “I want to see your personality. Can you handle it? Are you going to be sensitive? Are you going to be a little soft? I want to see if we can get the right fit, get the right personalities to make it entertaining and enjoyable.”

Mickelson trumpeted the joys of LIV’s team golf format. “It’s been a lot of fun. It’s different. It’s unique and something I haven’t experienced in over three decades since college with the occasional one week for the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, which was an incredible source of enjoyment, as well,” he said. He also dismissed any concerns about the fracturing of the men’s professional game.

“I would agree we’re in the middle of a disruption phase, but where we’re going to end up and where we will be when this gets sorted through is going to be exponentially better than where we were in the path that we were on,” he said. That’s where YouTube comes in, he said; he cited the PGA Tour’s fan base as having “increased from 60 to 65” while LIV is “targeting a much different, much younger generation.”

LIV is still relatively new; the controversial startup is in the home stretch of its third season. It has had success attracting enthusiastic crowds at some of its events, although by other traditional metrics of success — broadcast TV ratings, for instance — LIV has made little progress. Still, Mickelson’s focus is on the league’s worldwide potential.

“The compensation that we’ve all received has been basically to give up 14 weeks of the year and commit, say, okay, wherever you tell us to go, we’re going to go. We’re going to go and compete, and that’s all throughout the world. So now when you are Hong Kong and you sign a deal to have LIV Golf come, you know who you’re getting. You know who’s playing there. Many of the best players in the world are traveling throughout and bringing professional golf throughout the world.”

Mickelson’s jump to LIV came with a dose of frustration with the PGA Tour. He expanded a bit on that, too, suggesting that during his time with the Tour he’d gone all in on helping it thrive.

“For 30-plus years I did everything I could to help build the PGA Tour brand, and I would be brought in to help close the deal with many CEOs when they were on the brink of potentially signing a deal, whether it was Bob Diamond at Barclays, it was Rick Waddell at Northern Trust, it was the guys at Shell, Marvin Odom. There were about seven to 10 times that I would come in and try to close the deal,” he said. “That was my way to help trying to build the PGA Tour at that time. I’m no longer part of the Tour.”

Instruction

His focus now is on the HyFlyers franchise. He cited the long-term potential of the team model, including a decade from now when, he says, there will be a facility with world-class instruction and the ability to bring in players who wouldn’t otherwise have access to that level of training.

“My focus has changed to building something different. I tried for decades internally to do it with where I was at, and I feel like this is a better way to go to achieve the things that I want to achieve in the game.”

There are still things Mickelson wants to achieve on the course, too. While he said he expects to be involved with the HyFlyers “probably through the rest of my life,” he’s hoping for several more competitive years ahead.

“As far as my career, I’m realistic with where I’m at. I’m 54 and I’m putting in the work,” he said. “I also have a unique opportunity because of the fact that physically I’ve been able to withstand injuries and been able to be in better shape to do something at an age that nobody else has done, but I have not played at that level that I need to.”

It’s still been just three years since Mickelson’s PGA Championship triumph at Kiawah. And while he has shown flashes of strong play — he made the cut at two of four majors this year — he has just one top-20 finish on LIV all season.

“I see glimpses and my teammates see glimpses of me being where I expect to be able to compete at this level, but I’m also realistic with myself, and if I’m not able to I’ll step aside and let somebody come on in and take the HyFlyers to new levels,” he said.

“I’m in every major on the regular tour next year, and I’ll be in three of the four majors for the next six, seven years. I would love to compete and give myself a chance to win in those, and I also want to build this out and create a culture that is sustainable and that people strive to be a part of.

How I do that, whether it’s internally as a player and so forth, or whether it’s strictly from the outside, I’m going to be intricately involved with the HyFlyers going forward probably the rest of my life, and then my playing career I’ll be realistic where I’m at, too.”

Mickelson has always been known for his creative, inspiring short game. But of late he said that’s the part of golf that has turned on him.

“You know, surprisingly if you look at the analytics, it’s been my short game that’s just crushed me the last few years,” he said. “I’ve been like, last in scrambling on LIV. It’s been a staple of my game throughout my career, and the last couple years it’s been the reason why I have not scored and had the results. That’s where I’ve been focusing.”

What was most interesting about Mickelson’s comments is that they doubled down on the idea that LIV is moving full steam ahead on its own. And the possibility of a deal with the PGA Tour is, he added, not his concern. “I’m not part of those conversations,” he said. Nor did he acknowledge concern over low ratings on broadcast TV.

“I know they’re in the middle of negotiating viewership relationships and partnerships going for next year. I’m not a part of that, so I don’t really have any great insight for you,” he said. “I just know that the old-school model is not where LIV Golf is headed. It’s not where the future is going, and we don’t want to get stuck in a rut.”

Mickelson — and LIV — have already changed professional golf. What remains unclear is how they’ll change it next.