Mickelson decides to skip Masters
THREE-TIME Masters champion Phil Mickelson, out of public view since his inflammatory remarks about the Saudi-funded rival league and the PGA Tour, has decided not to play at Augusta National this year.
Mickelson’s name was moved from the list of players expected to compete in the Masters to a section at the bottom titled, “past champions not playing.”
The club confirmed that Mickelson has notified Augusta National he will not be playing. The Masters is April 7 to 10.
It will be the first time Mickelson is not at the Masters since 1994, when he was recovering from a broken leg suffered while skiing.
Mickelson, who last year became golf’s oldest major champion when he won the PGA Championship at age 50, was at the Saudi International when he accused the PGA
Tour in a Golf Digest interview of “obnoxious greed.”
Two weeks later, golf writer and author Alan Shipnuck published part of his upcoming biography on Mickelson that shed further insight into his involvement with Greg Norman and the Saudi-funded “Super Golf League.”
Mickelson told Shipnuck the Saudis behind a proposed breakaway rival league were “scary mother (expletive)s to get involved with.”
He also said it was worth getting in bed with the Saudis, despite their history of human rights abuses, if it meant a chance to change the PGA Tour.
“We know they killed (Washington Post columnist Jamal) Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay,” he said. “Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”