Phil Mickelson, who has not performed competitively since incendiary remarks he made in assist of a Saudi-backed golf league that hopes to rival the established PGA Tour have been reported in February, will finish his self-imposed layoff later this week by taking part in within the first occasion of the upstart LIV Golf circuit.
Mickelson, the winner of six main golf championships together with final yr’s P.G.A. Championship when he grew to become the oldest golfer to win a serious, can be one among 48 gamers competing for $25 million in prize cash when the match begins Thursday on the Centurion Membership close to London. Final week, Dustin Johnson, fifteenth within the males’s world golf rankings, additionally agreed to compete on the choice tour. A report in The Telegraph mentioned Johnson was paid $125 million to hitch LIV Golf, whose main shareholder is the Public Funding Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.
The breakaway tour has additionally promised hefty look charges and a format that ensures each entrant six-figure payouts.
“This new path is a contemporary begin, one that’s thrilling for me at this stage in my profession,” Mickelson, whose world rating has slumped to 72nd, wrote on Twitter Monday. “I absolutely notice and respect some could disagree with this choice and will have sturdy opinions and I empathize with that. I’ve a renewed spirit and pleasure for the sport,” he added.
Mickelson’s announcement will probably result in his suspension from the PGA Tour, which has paid Mickelson greater than $94 million in match earnings for 30 years. Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, has mentioned gamers who select to play LIV Golf occasions can be topic to self-discipline that might embody suspensions or lifetime bans.
Mickelson, with a popularity as a golf firebrand, would possibly relish a courtroom problem to the PGA Tour’s proper to ban him. Monahan has not flinched when requested if he had the authority to self-discipline gamers in that method, insisting that the tour’s attorneys consider any punishment handed to golfers who play for the rival tour will face up to authorized scrutiny.
Mickelson, probably the most recognizable golfers of his technology, drew heavy criticism after he acknowledged Saudi Arabia had a “horrible document on human rights” — together with the homicide of a Washington Publish journalist — however mentioned he was nonetheless speaking with, and aiding, the brand new tour as a result of it was a “once-in-a-lifetime alternative.” Earlier this yr, Mickelson, 51, accused the PGA Tour, the place he has received 45 instances, of “obnoxious greed.” He later mentioned his remarks have been “reckless,” however nonetheless a number of longtime company sponsors, together with KPMG and Workday, ended their relationships with him.
On Monday, Mickelson wrote: “I wish to once more apologize to the many individuals I offended and damage with my feedback a number of months in the past. I’ve made errors in my profession in a number of the issues I’ve mentioned and executed. Taking time away and self-reflecting has been very humbling.”
The match close to London is one among eight occasions this yr within the LIV Golf Invitational Sequence. Early this season, Mickelson competed in three PGA Tour occasions, lacking the reduce in two and ending tied for thirtieth within the third.
Though a three-time Masters winner, he skipped this yr’s match. On Monday, nonetheless, Mickelson mentioned he meant to play in future main championships. He’s at the moment within the subject for subsequent week’s U.S. Open and subsequent month’s British Open.
Greg Norman, the chief government and commissioner of LIV Golf, who mentioned final week that “free company has lastly come to golf,” praised Mickelson.
“His contributions to the game and connection to followers across the globe can’t be overstated, and we’re grateful to have him,” Norman mentioned on Monday in a press release.
Lots of Mickelson’s colleagues on the PGA Tour, together with his longtime rival Tiger Woods, have been crucial of Mickelson’s adversarial stance towards the tour.
“The viewpoints that Phil has made with the tour and what the tour has meant to all of us has been polarizing,” Woods mentioned final month.
Rory McIlroy, a four-time main winner, referred to as Mickelson’s feedback, “naïve, egocentric, egotistical, ignorant.”
Final week, McIlroy, who has been outspoken in his disdain for the LIV Golf enterprise, was dismissive of the catalog of gamers entered within the match to start Thursday on the Centurion Membership.
“I actually don’t suppose the sector is something to leap up and down about,” McIlroy mentioned.
However Monday on Twitter, Mickelson was cheerful.
“I’m thrilled to start with LIV Golf and I admire everybody concerned,” he wrote.
