Smith: Phil Mickelson's latest claim is his most preposterous yet
Phil Mickelson's latest claim about LIV Golf players and the major championships was his most preposterous yet, writes Ben Smith.
Phil Mickelson has made some outlandish claims during his illustrious career.
Take, for example, the time he puffed out his chest and declared he'd made 47 holes in one across his lifetime.
That means he's apparently averaged one ace every year since he was six years old.
That's just the tip of the iceberg.
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And since he went rogue by joining LIV Golf in 2022, he has continued to make a number of audacious proclamations with alarming regularity.
But his latest was undoubtedly the most preposterous yet.
And it got the backlash it rightly deserved.
What piqued Mickelson's interest was the utterly exhausting topic of LIV players' struggles to gain access into the four major championships.
Mickelson is a follower of the X account Flushing It.
Said account outlined how, given LIV Golf have officially withdrawn their application for world ranking points, it has to be the breakaway tour's number one priority to ensure their players can get into the majors.
Otherwise LIV's 'grand' plans over the next decade and beyond matter not.
Mickelson posted the following:
“What if NONE of the LIV players played? Would they be missed? What about next year, or the year after? At some point they will care and will have to answer to sponsors and television. FAAFO.”
'FAAFO', if you weren't aware, means 'f--ck around and find out'.
In no uncertain terms, Mickelson was threatening that LIV players could boycott the majors if nothing changes.
Just let that sink in for a second.
It is a simply ludicrous and downright laughable suggestion and reminds us of the time that LIV executive claimed he'd just start his own majors if their players were frozen out completely.
Can you imagine Mickelson trying to tell Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm et al to boycott Augusta National?!
I'd pay good money to see Koepka and Rahmbo picketing outside Magnolia Lane.
"WHAT DO WE WANT?!"
Mickelson later deleted his post to the surprise of absolutely nobody but before he did so he received a short shrift from a number of X users.
"Phil is, as he often is, delusional," one wrote.
Another added: "More divisiveness from Phil and LIV. What else is new?"
Despite Mickelson's utterly bizarre claim, it came a few days before LIV were extended a significant olive branch in the form of the PGA of America daring to go where the green jackets at Augusta National wouldn't.
As many as 15 golfers will represent LIV at the forthcoming PGA Championship. Of those, seven have been handed invitations.
That's up from 13 at the 2024 Masters and only one of those players, Joaquin Niemann, received a special invite to the tradition unlike any other.
All the others in the field at the first major of the year were there by virtue of their world ranking, were a previous champion or had won a major in the last five years.
It helped the Chilean's cause that he had won the Australian Open at the turn of the year and was a former Latin America Amateur champion.
More worthy of note was the fact Talor Gooch, who has made absolutely no effort to play on any other tour other than LIV since its inception, has been invited to play the US PGA.
Crucially, it is the first time a major governing body has recognised a player's accomplishments on LIV.
Gooch, LIV's 2023 individual champion, has spent the last 18 months whinging about his plight.
It was clearly set out to him that by joining LIV he was risking major championship starts.
"I never thought leopards would eat MY face," sobbed Gooch, who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.
Okay, he didn't say that, but you get the picture.
Before Mickelson teed it up in Singapore last week he made the admission that his career is now winding down.
He should probably do the same with his outlandish claims.
His continued s--- stirring is anything but helpful at this critical juncture.
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