With 45 PGA Tour wins and six majors to his name, Phil Mickelson had long secured his place among golf’s legends. But in the twilight of his career, he didn’t just chase titles, he lit a match under the sport’s power structure. Quietly backing the rise of Saudi-funded LIV Golf while blasting the PGA Tour for “obnoxious greed,” Mickelson helped launch a player-led revolt that rocked the golf world. But, the consequences also came fast: suspended in early 2022, dropped by sponsors, and absent from the Masters for the first time in nearly three decades. By June, he made it official with LIV and sealed his exile from the PGA establishment.
Fast forward to mid-2025, the reckoning has come. Renowned golf journalist Alan Shipnuck—who’s covered Mickelson since the mid-90s and penned his unauthorized biography—recently conceded that Mickelson had a point. In a conversation with Joe Molloy on Indo Sport, Shipnuck unpacked the paradox: “You know, there’s a big part of Phil that needed to be this agent of change, and in a lot of ways, he was right.”
Shipnuck’s commentary carries weight. A long-time reporter for Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine, he began chronicling Mickelson’s rise during the boom of the Tiger-era of golf. Their professional relationship, cemented through years of shared press rooms and tournaments, eventually gave Shipnuck rare backstage access. That culminated in Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar, published in 2022. Built from around 200 interviews with Phil’s inner circle, the book offered a candid portrait—showman, gambler, tactician, and iconoclast.
#LISTEN – Indo Sport podcast: Alan Shipnuck on golf | Writing the book on Rory McIlroy | Phil Mickelson’s final act @MolloyJoe@AlanShipnuck https://t.co/lBycm2N9Nt
— Irish Independent Sport (@IndoSport) June 19, 2025
But it was a fateful 2021 phone call that changed everything. Mickelson told Shipnuck that working with LIV Golf was a calculated way to “reshape how the PGA Tour operates,” even while acknowledging the Saudis were “scary motherf*****s.” The remarks, published in an excerpt, set off a firestorm. Mickelson claimed the quotes were off-the-record, Shipnuck says otherwise. That moment, Shipnuck now reflects, sealed Mickelson’s fate. “It was the incredibly cynical things he said to me that ended up in the Phil book that, you know, sort of led to his suspension and ultimately his exile,” he said.
Mickelson’s attempt to reshape golf’s power dynamics had succeeded, but at immense personal cost. His two biggest gripes with the PGA Tour have since been validated. First, player governance. In response to the threat posed by LIV, the Tour has significantly shifted power to the players. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and others now sit on decision-making boards—something unthinkable before LIV’s rise. Second, money. Tour prize pools ballooned following LIV’s emergence, with the PGA opening its coffers to match the competition. As Shipnuck observed, “There’s no doubt he was correct.”
Still, Shipnuck is candid about Mickelson’s tactics: “He was so sneaky, kind of in the shadows, trying to work three sides of the street simultaneously. But instead, you know, he’s been villainized.” Shipnuck added: “What’s lost in all the noise is: Phil was right—in some profound ways.” His downfall may have been self-inflicted, but the cracks he exposed in the PGA Tour’s foundation didn’t go unnoticed, and others soon began to speak up.
Other voices, same frustration: A tour under fire
Mickelson may have lit the fuse, but he’s far from the only player to challenge the PGA Tour’s grip. In the wake of LIV’s rise, more golfers have echoed his concerns, though often more tactfully. Rory McIlroy, initially one of LIV’s most outspoken critics, stepped down from the PGA Tour’s policy board in 2023, citing exhaustion and disillusionment. By early 2024, he began softening his stance, even pushing for reintegration talks between LIV and PGA players.
Tiger Woods, while not a LIV supporter, acknowledged in 2024 that “mistakes were made” by the Tour in ignoring player feedback for too long. Meanwhile, Jon Rahm’s surprise LIV defection in December 2023, with a rumored $450 million payout, forced the PGA to accelerate structural reforms, including a new “Equity for Players” initiative, offering top talent partial ownership in the Tour’s commercial ventures.
Young stars like Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele have also called out transparency issues and inconsistent policies. “We just want clarity—and respect,” Hovland said during the 2024 U.S. Open. It’s a sentiment that echoes the core of Mickelson’s original message, even if his delivery overshadowed it. As the sport continues to evolve, Mickelson remains a complicated figure: part pariah, part prophet.
The post Analyst Admits Phil Mickelson Was ‘Right’ About PGA Tour but One ‘Cynical’ Move Backfired appeared first on EssentiallySports.
