The heartless move that brought morally bankrupt golf legend to the brink of ruin – Fox Sports

Almost four years ago, Phil Mickelson was a linchpin in golfs bizarre dip into the waters of pay-per-view television.

The event, called The Match, was a head-to-head match play event against one-time rival Tiger Woods for a mega purse of $9 million ($A12.5m).

It was hardly The Rumble in the Jungle.

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The showdown was awkward and slow with long walks up fairways jarring proof that one vs one golf is not exactly a triumph for broadcast television.

There was a tackiness, too, such as Mickelson baiting Woods into a $A280,000 side bet that he would birdie the first hole, and a $A420,000 wager on closest-to-the-pin at the 13th.

The only winner in the end was Mickelson, who defeated Woods in darkness after four playoff holes, and lost only one of five side bets.

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Its an event worth revisiting this week after Mickelson completed a full-scale heel turn that would make even the most villainous of wrestling stars blush.

On Thursday, the proposed $2.9bn Saudi-backed Super Golf League was all but certain to take off, posing a existential threat to the established PGA and European Tours.

But in the space of one four-day tournament on Americas west coast, the Saudi plan has unravelled spectacularly.

The splinter league is still set to be launched, but it could be dead on arrival with the biggest names in golf recommitting to the PGA Tour.

To be seen alongside Mickelson now is to commit some sort of brand reputation suicide.

The turning point was comments made by Mickelson that have been slammed as morally bankrupt, and breathtakingly greedy.

In remarks to biographer Alan Shipnuck, that were made public via the Fire Pit Collective website on Thursday, Mickelson acknowledged Saudi Arabias appalling human rights record, and cited the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

He nonetheless expressed his desire to potentially join the breakaway tour the Saudis are bankrolling, merely to gain leverage against the PGA Tour.

Theyre scary motherf-----s to get involved with, Mickelson is quoted as saying.

We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay.

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.

The comments threaten to be a permanent stain on the legacy of the six-time major-winner.

Mickelsons golfing success long went hand-in-hand with his legendary appetite for gambling on-course.

The Match was the moment the two were married and, in a way, strangely celebrated.

But its clear at this stage in his career that Mickelson puts as much value on financial gain as he does winning and gamesmanship.

When Mickelson went on to clinch the 2021 PGA Championship from out of no where, there was a feeling that his legacy would be cemented in his longevity and major wins.

But his brazen willingness to associate with the Saudi regime in an attempt to strongarm the PGA Tour into making changes that would generate him greater wealth has, understandably, gone down like a lead balloon.

World No.8 Justin Thomas labelled Mickelsons comments as egotistical, while Rory McIlroy went a step further by calling them naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant.

Meanwhile, Golf Channel analyst Eamon Lynch said: I cannot think of a more morally bankrupt statement that any public figure could make.

Lynch later doubled down in a scathing column for USA Today, in which he said that Mickelson had brought himself and the Super Golf League to the brink of ruin.

An old adage holds that if you wait by the riverbank long enough, the bodies of your enemies will eventually float by, Lynch wrote.

Thats as good a metaphor as any for how some golf industry executives must have felt in the wake of recent comments by Phil Mickelson that incinerated his reputation, alienated most every constituency in the game, exposed him to disciplinary action, and otherwise cast him in a light so unflatteringly amoral that even Greg Norman might hesitate to be seen in his company.

He added: If hes assembling an army to go over the top with him (to the SGL), it is starting to resemble more a mangy assortment of moth-eaten veterans than an elite fighting force.

The charlatan Tour members involved in this scheme Mickelson and Norman chief among them have never been more isolated from their peers, never more exposed in their heartless opportunism, and never more lacking in public support.

Columnist for The Washington Post Jennifer Rubin was also scathing in her assessment, saying that Mickelson showed a breathtaking greed and unabashed sustain for others suffering.

Mickelsons Faustian bargain with the Saudis brought on a furious reaction because his reasoning was patently amoral and because the stakes for him (a new golf tournament for already rich and successful golfers) are pathetically small, Rubin wrote, while arguing he is not alone while citing political examples.

Meanwhile, Sky Sports' golf expert Rich Beem wrote in his own column that Mickelsons stance was confusing and he stood to make enemies of his colleagues.

Beem said it was confusing that Mickelson would not attempt to gain support from fellow players to rally against the PGA Tours stronghold of media rights and instead negotiate with a rival league .

Why go about this in a completely roundabout way and make it so controversial? Beem wrote. It doesnt make sense to me.

When they hear all this from Phil I think they are thinking why is he saying all this?

And without educating them, Phil is separating himself from the PGA Tour.

He may have just done so irreparably.

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The heartless move that brought morally bankrupt golf legend to the brink of ruin - Fox Sports