If Phil Mickelson is Hamlet in Shakespeare’s Tragedy, his monologues, “To be or not to be,” may be changed to this question: to LIV (join the Saudi Golf League) or not to LIV.
On May 17, a copy of “Phil – the Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized) Autobiography of Golf’s Most Colorful Star” by Alan Shipnuck was delivered. I totally devoured it on the same day. Here is my reaction to this unauthorized biography that sparked all the talk about Mickelson, Saudi Arabia and Gulf/golf money and the future legacy of an elite PGA Hall of Fame member in golf.
First, I have an affinity for reading golf-oriented material since writing about golf has been my passion at The Times for the past 44 years. What caught my attention throughout the book’s nineteen chapters were the colorful tales of Mickelson’s professional golfers, non-golfers and friends and contemporaries.
This story is very typical. It’s about his basketball buddy Charles Barkley and flying, “Phil was always trying to get me to fly with him,” says Barkley. “There’s no way he’s ‘expletive’ dude. I thought his full confidence was funny. He was like, ‘C’ man, I’m a good pilot.” No, you’re a great golfer. There is a difference. I am a firm believer that you are only good at one thing in life. You don’t see any United Airlines pilots on the PGA Tour, do you? I finished my case. But Phil argued this point all day long.”
Second, the next note that was left out of reading this book was Michelson’s complexity. He had a Tigeresque talent for golf, a tireless work ethic, a precocious learner, a risk taker, a hacker, a philanthropist, and a gamer/gambling lover. This latest attraction to money leads me to my final reaction to the book. Why is Mickelson interested in the Saudi tour and winning it? Was it for the sake of returning to the PGA Tour due to alleged or perceived insults, to use the Saudi Tour as revenge leverage, a cash grab, or a guaranteed way to pay off his huge gambling debts?
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Third, to answer this gambling question, the book contains some but not all of the answers. For example, in 2001, Mickelson cashed $560,000 for a Super Bowl ticket when he put $20,000 on the Baltimore Ravens (28-1) in pre-season to win the championship. From 2010 to 2014, Mickelson incurred playing losses in excess of $40 million; According to Shippuk, he was involved with hateful bookmakers “Dandy Dan” DeSerrano, a Detroit henchman who was an alleged partner in the national mafia organization La Cosa Nostra and Bryan Zuriff, who claimed links to the Russian mafia.
He was also involved in some insider trading in Dean Foods stock (he bought 200,240 shares at a cost of $2.46 million) which could have landed him in prison as it did with gambling partner Billy Walters. He eventually paid out $931,738 plus $105,292 in interest in gains collected from insider trading. Walters served time and Donald Trump commuted his five-year prison sentence in the final hours of his presidency.
Finally, if you want to read a book on Mickelson that features dozens of great leads, both true and false, this book will keep you reading well into the night. Mickelson came through the 250-page ‘disclosure with plenty of saintly and demonic attributes – which ultimately define us all.
golf notes
The Saudi Golf League (SGL) has the funds ($620 billion in the Public Investment Fund) to support the eight golf tournaments in 2022. The first is scheduled for June 9-11 at the Centurion Club in London and the last is in October. 28-30 at Trump National Doral in Miami. Each of the top seven leagues has a $20 million purse and a 48-player limited field (12 teams of four) with the winner getting $4 million. Compare that to last month’s PGA where the purse was $12 million and Justin Thomas earned just $2.7 million.
The reason the Saudi tour is so controversial is that Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, was assassinated by a 15-man hit squad inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 2, 2018. He was ambushed, strangled and cut to pieces, according to the Saudi Press Agency. Turkish investigators. According to Shipnuck’s book, this incident and the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens is the reason why many professional golfers, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas, were unwilling to do anything with this new professional league Led by its commissioner, Greg Norman.
Benedict College Women’s golf coach and Wapicada member Daryl Schumer receives his Medals of Honor at the MGA Championships for Intermediate Players and Players on May 17 at Golden Eagle Golf located in Fifty Lakes. Schumer shot 72 goals and that impressive result took him onto the field for the MGA Mid-Players Championship (June 13-15) at the Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo and the MGA Players Championship (June 20-22) at Burl Oaks Golf Club in Mainista.
Getting the first ace can be an exhilarating experience. On May 16, Tom Kohn, a retired media specialist at Sartell, took third place in fourth place in the Blackberry Ridge GC. Watch the action was playing partner John Ross. As Kun said, “The ball fell six feet from the cup and fell after the second bounce. What a great feeling!”
Speaking of Blackberry, during a recent run, the greens and fairways were at their best game shape in this Sartell design. Compete green speed Wapicada speed! If your reader hasn’t experienced the thrill of making an ace, make it happen this year. How? Play over three equal holes. My next column will be a review of a course, “The Gravel Pit” in Brainerd, which has triple treble and running that number of short holes in a row can increase your chances of catching the first ace. The tournament opened on April 20 and has already scored five aces.
That’s the opinion of Times golf columnist John Laiser. Contact him at Jgl1943@gmail.com.