He’s putting his mouth where the money is.
Phil Mickelson says he knows Saudi Arabia has a bad human rights record, but he’s so set on changing the PGA Tour that he’s still joining the country’s breakaway golf league.
“They’re scary motherf-----s to get involved with,” he told golf writer Alan Shipnuck in an interview published Thursday. “We know they killed (Washington Post reporter Jamal) Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights.”
Mickelson also mentioned that homosexuality is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
“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.”
Mickelson, 51, has made his displeasure with the PGA Tour clear over the past few years. He believes that golfers should get a larger share of the Tour’s revenue and control their own media rights, among other complaints.
Long a fan favorite, Mickelson has become arguably the face of the breakaway Saudi tour, which has been rumored for the past few years but not yet launched. Mickelson described it as an enemy-of-my-enemy situation.
“Unless you have leverage, (the PGA Tour) won’t do what’s right,” he told Shipnuck. “And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage. I’m not sure I even want (the Saudi tour) to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the (PGA) Tour.”
Mickelson, a six-time major winner, said the Saudi organizers essentially let players write the startup tour’s contract. Shipnuck reported that 20 current players, many of them big names, have agreed to join the Saudi tour.
PGA commissioner Jay Monahan has said that any player who joins the Saudi tour will be banned from the PGA Tour for life. While some insiders view it as an empty threat, most of the Tour’s young stars have recently committed to sticking around.
