The next few weeks are going to be weird for Phil Mickelson, and he seems to know it.
It was this time last year that he spouted off (inaccurately) about PGA Tour media rights during the Saudi International and then was exposed for trying to leverage Saudi investment to alter payment structures on the PGA Tour. The headlines were not hyper-local, as they can be for this niche sport. They went international, selling a lot of books, and ultimately forcing Mickelson into hiding. He spent Masters week in Montana, skiing in the morning and watching the golf in the afternoons. He went hiking in Sedona and passed on the opportunity to defend his PGA Championship title. In June, he returned, in the outskirts of London, wearing just one logo — a silhouette of his leaping self — that generated more buzz.
But now, on the verge of the one-year anniversary of that chaos, and the start of his second LIV Golf season, Mickelson doesn’t want to talk about all that. “I’m just putting last year out of my mind and disengaging,” he said in an interview with Bog Harig of Sports Illustrated. “A lot of stuff happened, and I’m refocused on today and starting the year.”
This was Mickelson’s third exclusive interview with Harig in the last nine months. (You can read it all here.) But unlike the last iteration, where Mickelson didn’t seem to say much, this one was filled with tidbits of where Mickelson’s head is at:
– He thinks he can replicate the magic of Kiawah Island and maybe even win two more majors
– He’s down to his playing weight from his college years
– He anticipates a new world ranking system emerging in response to LIV not getting OWGR points
– He thinks there will be some sort of “accountability” taking place in pro golf, whatever that means
One thing you won’t hear Mickelson talking about is the past. He’s been hesitant to address it in a straightforward way since his world was turned on its head.
Recall how his first press conference went back in June at Centurion Club. He spoke succinctly and carefully. It was decidedly un-Mickelsonian, which is to say he never once spun a yarn about a topic unprovoked. He apologized and felt compelled to say he didn’t “condone human rights violations” four different times. The only time that morning where talking looked easy for him was when he discussed his wife and their months off together, which led to better balance in his life.
The news cycle spins faster than ever these days, and it’s well within Mickelson’s right to want to move on. It’s also well within the public’s right to seek clarity for him when it hasn’t received much of it. (Even the idea of wanting to move on is worthy of its own follow-up.) One of the issues of Mickelson wanting to forge onward is that his value to LIV Golf is built on bringing his once immense fanbase along with him. But at least some of that flock appears bothered by receiving more questions than answers.
