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Phil Mickelson has 45 PGA Tour wins and 6 Major Championship trophies but the 54-year-old ‘lefty’ has yet to break through to the winner’s circle since joining the LIV Golf Tour. This past weekend he notched his best finish yet in a LIV Golf invitational when he finished in solo 3rd place after shooting -8 in the second round to put him in good position for Sunday.
After the 2nd round at LIV Golf Hong Kong, Phil Mickelson spoke about the Ryder Cup, team golf, and more. His quotes are a perfect microcosm of the dramatic shift in Phil Mickelson’s career from PGA Tour superstar to LIV Golf’s #1 evangelist.
Speaking with media at LIV Golf Hong Kong and the possibility of breaking through to win, Phil said “I would love nothing more” than to take down an individual event on the LIV Golf tour.
Mickelson went on to say “one of my goals is to win a LIV event. But the experience of sharing it with teammates… we’ve not won as a team. I’ve not ever won as a team in professional golf outside of the Ryder Cup, and even that was very few times, and it would mean a lot for — I think that would probably mean a little more, which is very unusual to say in a game that’s such an individual sport.”
Phil continued, saying “that would be special for us, especially the way we’ve worked hard together to come back from a rough year to put it together and compete, and to have early success here in week 3 on LIV, again, there’s another final round, but we have the guys that can do it.”
It wasn’t all that long ago when Phil Mickelson was the #2 star on the PGA Tour. For much of his career he played in Tiger Woods’ shadow but he was still a PGA Tour guy through and through, until he wasn’t.
I’ve seen some outlets like Newsweek call Phil Mickelson’s Ryder Cup quotes ‘delusional’ and to most people in the golf world they might seem that way but the reality of Phil’s quotes are that this is his new reality. Phil truly wants to win on LIV Golf, individually and as a team, more than he cares about representing his country on the Ryder Cup.
And that’s fine. Who are we to judge him for a shift in priorities? Also, the writing has been on the wall for a while. Phil Mickelson’s LIV Golf bio starts with ‘success on LIV Golf will be my legacy.’
Of course, to most golfers not named Phil Mickelson the idea of winning in the Ryder Cup is a lot more enticing than winning a team event in LIV Golf where there are just 13 teams. But this really does illustrate how far gone Phil Mikelson is from the PGA Tour. He’s a LIV Golf man through and through.