This has obviously been the story of the last few weeks in the golf world, as Phil Mickelson made some severe comments regarding the United Saudi League. I wrote a blog a couple months ago speaking about my thoughts on the league and why I thought it was good for golf but wanted to share my views on Phil.
Link for Original Saudi Blog:
The controversy all started when the below comments were released from an interview with Phil:
“They’re scary … to get involved with,” Mickelson told Shipnuck about working with the Saudis on the new league. “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.”
My Opinion (if anyone cares)
These comments, taken from this context, are extremely bad and – you can see why it’s being taken how it is. The problem is, in my opinion, that these comments were released separately on Twitter from the original interview. Classic..right? This seems to be the new standard that cancel-culture journalists prefer, which is completely and extremely unfair and always causes unnecessary harm to those being targeted. He never once said that he agrees with what happens in Saudi Arabia. He clearly described them as a regime, implying that they are an unfairly authoritative government. Whilst he clearly could have said it better and I personally don’t agree with a lot of what he said, I just think that the move to viralize only this one excerpt is pretty unfair.
Original Interview: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/phil-mickelson-pga-tour-media-rights-obnoxious-greed
Phil’s original interview was extremely interesting as he spoke about the issues concerning the way the Tour treats and pays their players. He wants to be able to own his own content, which in today’s digital world is a reasonable thing to want. Phil saidthat each time he does ‘The Match’ he has to pay a million dollars for his own media rights which sounds absolutely ridiculous. The PGA has always been horrific with allowing people to use their content freely. Which, if you’re not following me here, helps grow the game without them having to spend a dime on marketing themselves… It’s a greedy, stupid, and out of date stance. For the PGA to not realize that having pages, evenlike ours, be able to upload highlight clips helps the game expand to larger audiences just shows how ignorant they can be.
Now, we all know the other biggest reason Phil was considering this was money — and a lot of it. Rumors were that the Saudi League was offering a deal similar to Bryson’s, so upwards of $200-250 million. While apparently every nobody on Twitter makes that amount of money already, since so many people say that money shouldn’t decide anything in anyone’s lives, that’s generational wealth -and it absolutely should be something to consider. Also, to all the Karen’s out there, despite your disavowing of Phil and posts with yellow/blue hearts, we all know you’re ass would be in Saudi Arabia dapping up King Salman and his boy MBS if the check was big enough. Personally, as I’ve said many times before, I am a total sell-out. If the Saudis want me to exclusively write for them for a few mil a year, then tell Greg Norman I’ll be on the next flight.
Overall, I think that everyone could’ve just let this news blow over after Phil released his statement. The sponsors rushed to cover their tracks and now things are going to be very awkward every time they show Phil for the foreseeable future. I mean, its Phil-fucking Mickelson – the guy isn’t going to just vanish. I believe we will see him on tour or at least at the majors and think it would be hilarious if he won and everyone would be forced to showcase him.
What’s Next for Phil
Now let’s get back to what’s happening with the comments regarding the Saudi’s. Since he made such comments he’s been dropped by KPMG, Workday and his sponsorship with Callaway has been paused. He has also been removed as the ambassador of the American Express Open. All extremely drastic moves by his sponsors and it seems that cancel culture is coming for blood here, yet again. Unfortunately, this is turning into the story we all know too well at this point..
Since the sponsorship drops, Phil released the below statement, stating that things were supposed to be off the record and that he regrets the comments he made. He also came out and apologized for all comments that came from it. He emphasized how everything he spoke about was in the best interest of golf, but they got taken the wrong way. His comments are below:
These comments didn’t do all that much as the punishments continue to pile in from the sponsors. I wouldn’t be surprised if he loses Callaway completely and potentially receives a suspension from the PGA. Despite these sponsorships all being 10+ years, it seems everyone is looking in the short term. We just went through this same thing with JT when he dropped the other kind of F-bomb.
What’s Next for the Saudi League
As far as the Saudi League goes, it looks like the PGA may have won the battle, but I’m not positive the war is over yet. Basically every player took it upon themselves to release a statement pledging their allegiance to the PGA. After everyone tweeting how much they love the PGA, Greg Norman decided to step up and dropped an absolute nuke of a letter to the Commissioner of the PGA.
I think Norman kind of bodied Commissioner Monahan here and I still feel like the Saudi League would be good for golf. Competition is what America was built on, and the PGA has been running a monopoly for decades. This really could be the only chance we have of fixing some issues with the Tour and I just hope that one comment from Phil doesn’t ruin that.
Closing Comments
There’s not too much to say besides the above. Everyone will always have their own opinions on these political subjects. I never had intentions on bringing politics into this, but since it has been in the news so much I felt that it was necessary. I hope,at the very least, the PGA realizes that competition is loomingand they need to accept players owning their own content and other companies posting their videos. It’s good for the game and it’s time to take advantage of the new crowd that they receive through newer digital outlets. Overall, I just want to see the lefty out there and post clips of players hitting sick shots. I think it’s funny how much the PGA has been obsessed with Phil since he won the PGA Championship, and now one comment throws everything away. Hopefully, things will start to blow over soon and the world just accepts his apology so we can move on.
Three Putt Bogeys 