Ever since Phil Mickelson helped bring prominence to LIV Golf, he has simultaneously criticized the PGA Tour.

He famously said to Alan Shipnuck in February 2022, after referring to the Saudi Arabian Kingdom as “scary motherf***ers,” that his move to LIV was “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”

Mickelson added, “[The PGA Tour has] been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse.”

These sentiments about the PGA Tour continued during a Thursday press conference in Singapore, where a reporter asked Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau about their viral golf videos and social media posts.

“Bryson has a beat and understanding on social media that I’m late to the party on, [and] I don’t fully understand it, but I’ve been spending time with him, and I’ve been starting to understand it more and more,” Mickelson said.

“I think that’s why we’re so excited here at LIV; a lot of these opportunities were not an option for us before LIV. We didn’t have an opportunity for elevated events. We didn’t have an opportunity for equity. We didn’t have an opportunity to do our own social media. That was all controlled and shot down.”

Mickelson alluded to the PGA Tour having all the leverage while noting the changes the tour has made since LIV Golf’s inception. Since then, the PGA Tour has established Signature Events, a Player Impact Program (PIP) that awards top players top dollars for their social media presence, and an equity share program, which would not have been possible without the Strategic Sports Group’s (SSG) investment.

But the six-time major winner also said these opportunities have been available to LIV golfers since the onset.

“Every event is an elevated event. We have equity, and we have the ability to do these social media posts and try to transcend the game of golf to different generations. All of these things were not possible before LIV came along,” Mickelson said.

“We’re very appreciative that we have that opportunity, and [DeChambeau’s vision is what I’m trying to better understand because, at 53, I don’t fully grasp this generation and so forth and the opportunities that social media provides. As I better understand it, I try to take advantage of it a little bit or do some of it.”

Mickelson has had plenty of viral moments on social media over the past year, including a hilarious story he told about practicing at Augusta National. But on the flip side, he has also exchanged barbs with Trevor Immelman, thrown shade at Rory McIlroy, and traded blows with golf fans over the PGA Tour-LIV Golf divide.

Still, Mickelson, along with DeChambeau, believe that their social media prowess—and their freedom to produce content at their discretion—have allowed them to help grow the game among diverse groups of people around the world.

“We’ve talked about growing the game out here at LIV, and we’re doing that globally, but we want to continue to enhance it. I think what LIV has provided us the ability to do, not only from a team level, the HyFlyers, and the Crushers, what we’re able to do as a team commercially and social media-wise over the course of time,” DeChambeau said.

“But for us to be able to showcase our unique abilities in different ways allows us to not only showcase our personalities but also the great level of play we have. [We also show] the skill set that we have that can hopefully inspire a lot more people to play the game of golf.”

Phil Mickelson has given perhaps his biggest hint yet that he’s considering retiring from a stellar career in golf, which has seen him earn hundreds of millions of dollars and bag some of its biggest prizes.

“I’m 53 now and my career, you know, if I’m being truthful it’s toward its end,” Mickelson told Bloomberg TV in an interview for an upcoming episode of Latitude with Haslinda Amin. “Now, I would like to help others find the same enjoyment and fulfillment that the game of golf has provided me.”

Phil Mickelson believes LIV Golf will only continue to attract big-name players in the coming years, which will no doubt prove a worry for the breakaway league’s rivals over on the PGA Tour.

LIV has catapulted itself to the top end of professional golf over the past two years alongside the PGA Tour, leading to an ugly dispute between the two circuits. Having lured in the likes of Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm, the Tour has looked to stifle the progress of the Saudi-backed series by banning any player who makes the switch.

Rahm became the latest big star to make the move last December, in what was arguably LIV’s biggest coup yet as they signed the former Masters champion via deal worth a reported £450 million.

And looking forward, Mickelson believes Greg Norman and co will only continue to add to their roster. “I think there’s a lot of things that are going to transpire over the next five or ten years. I’m very bullish and excited about what that means for LIV Golf,” the six-time major winner claimed ahead of LIV Singapore.

“There’s also a lot of uncertainty. I think the thing that I do know is I think the quality of the players will continue to get better each year. I think that the ability and the sites that we move to throughout the world will continue to excite players and excite fans.”

The uncertainty Mickelson was referring to is the proposed peace agreement that continues to be negotiated between the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF). Announced last June, the deal is set to end the hostilities within the game, reuniting the best players in the world.

As things stand though, an agreement is yet to be signed off after those involved missed their initial deadline of December 31 at the end of 2023. Whilst it remains up in the air as to what the outlook for the whole sport is, Mickelson’s LIV colleague Bryson DeChambeau is optimistic about the breakaway league.

“The future of LIV. We know it’s going to be here, bigger, badder and better than ever before,” DeChambeau said on Wednesday. “It’s just going to continue to keep growing over the next five to ten years.”

In particular, the former U.S. Open champion believes the team element of LIV will take off following the success of the league’s maiden team playoff in Adelaide last week. “I think the competition between the teams will get heightened.

“The rivalries will get heightened. There’s already some sort of rivalries going on right now, but as the years go on and people are going to win championships, that team championship at the end of the year last year like the Crushers did, I think there’s going to be a lot of rivalries to be produced that you’ll see, and it’s stories to be told I think will be pretty insane over the next five to ten years.”

As LIV Golf forges ahead with its plans for 2025, it remains unclear what the future holds for some of the league’s first big name signings. 

The three-year contracts signed by some golfers after the breakaway league’s inception will expire in 2024, with player turnover therefore expected to ramp up at the end of this season.

LIV CEO Greg Norman has made no secret of his plans to coax more big name players from the PGA Tour, while bosses are also exploring new territories to stage tournaments.

But while LIV and the main tours continue to operate independently from each other, many players face uncertain futures.

Chief amongst them is Phil Mickelson, such a key figure in LIV’s emergence back in 2022. Mickelson, 53, was one of the first high-profile stars to sign a multi-year LIV deal, but his form has waned on the Saudi-backed circuit.

It is unclear how long Mickelson, the captain of HyFlyers GC, will continue to play LIV events into his mid-fifties, but he is still hugely optimistic about the direction of the enterprise.

“I think there’s a lot of things that are going to transpire over the next five or ten years,” the six-time major champion said at this week’s event in Singapore. “I’m very bullish and excited about what that means for LIV Golf.

“But there’s also a lot of uncertainty. I think the things that I do know is I think the quality of the players will continue to get better each year. I think that the ability and the sites that we move throughout the world will continue to excite players and excite fans. We’ll be going to more countries outside of the United States that really are starving for world-class professional golf, and we’ll have a lot more receptions like we had at Adelaide.

“With Singapore and the tourism department getting involved and loving the event that transpired last year and wanting us to come back, that seems to be the case right now where a lot of countries are negotiating and trying to get a LIV event there. So I see the global game of golf growing at an extremely high level.”

Bryson DeChambeau, the Crushers GC captain, is similarly spirited about LIV’s long-term future.

“We know it’s going to be here, bigger, badder and better than ever before,” DeChambeau added. “It’s just going to continue to keep growing over the next five to ten years.Where I see it heading, I think there may be an opportunity for this to be from an audience perspective even bigger.

“You’re going to see a lot more interactions from teams. I think the competition between the teams will get heightened. The rivalries will get heightened. There’s already some sort of rivalries going on right now, but as the years go on and people are going to win championships, that team championship at the end of the year last year like the Crushers did.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of rivalries to be produced that you’ll see, and it’s stories to be told I think will be pretty insane over the next five to ten years.”

Brendan Steele thanked Phil Mickelson for his LIV Golf breakthrough moment after claiming his first win on the breakaway tour at the weekend.

The American, 41, held a commanding lead at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia heading into the final round. A four-under-par effort on Sunday was good enough to hold off former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen by one stroke.

Steele, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour before joining LIV last year, claimed a career-high payday of £3.2m, but he was quick to shift the praise to HyFlyers team captain Mickelson for the role he has played in improving not only Steele’s game but his mentality.

“(Mickelson) was like, how are you feeling? What are you thinking?” Steele said after Sunday’s big win. “I said, ‘Well, if I can play freely like I did the last couple days, I feel like I’ll have a good chance’. He’s like, ‘That’s great. Let’s reframe it. Let’s make it when I play freely, I can play freely, I will play freely. Let’s reframe it into that’.

“Then I was saying, ‘I think it’ll be good enough’ but ‘He’s like, no, it will be good enough, you will play freely. This is what you need to do’. So that was what I was trying to do. He’s the reason that I’m here and the reason that I’m improving. To be honest, I’m 41 years old and I’m getting better, and it’s mostly because of him.”

Steele’s success came amid significant struggles for six-time major champion Mickelson, who has been unable to produce his best form since becoming a founding member of LIV two years ago. The lefty is 34th in the season standings, with a tied-sixth finish in Jeddah his only glimmer of success.

Phil Mickelson has admitted that he should not be involved in the 2025 Ryder Cup for Team USA because he is ‘a very divisive character’ in golf.

As one of the founding fathers of LIV Golf, the lucrative breakaway organization backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), Mickelson has played a major role in tearing apart the PGA Tour.

Many golfers have since followed, such as Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, while others like Rory McIlroy have remained loyal to the PGA cause and denounced the LIV rebels.

The price he will pay includes denying him further opportunities to be involved with the Ryder Cup, having made 12 appearances and won the trophy on three occasions – in 1999, 2008 and 2016.

His last appearance came back in 2018, and despite being vice-captain for the 2021 team, he fully appreciates that he has no chance of being captain next year.

“I don’t feel I’m the right guy to be involved with the team because I’m a very divisive character right now, if you will, and I understand that,” Mickelson told Pat McAfee.

“The players on the PGA Tour, there’s a lot of hostilities towards me, and I don’t feel I’d be the best leader for them. I knew I was going to take some hits [after going to LIV Golf]. I’m OK with that.

“And as a divisive individual, I don’t think I’m the best unifier going forward for the Ryder Cup and that’s that’s fine because I’ve had so many great memories with it.”

Mickelson goes from hero to villain

In Mickelson’s case, he has gone from being of the U.S’s most cherished players to the enemy in the eyes of some, but he is willing to live with the criticism after choosing the riches promised by the LIV Tour.

He signed a huge $200 million contract in 2022 just for giving his rights to compete in the PGA Championship. A year on from the launch of the new regime in golf, the 53-year-old believes the future is bright.

“I’m excited about the direction of professional golf,” Mickelson said. “I’m optimistic about the future. I’m optimistic about the growth of LIV and I’m optimistic about the global growth of the game.”

Brendan Steele, at the age of 41 and after 19 years as a pro, knows who he is.

He freely admits it, too.

“I’m pretty nervous all the time,” he said. “I think that’s just my DNA.”

Has it been a hindrance? To the casual eye, not so much. Nerves, they’ll tell you, are one of the surest signs you care, and Steele’s carved out a good career for himself. Three PGA Tour wins. A spot for the past year with LIV Golf, where he plays for the HyFlyers team headed by Phil Mickelson — but it was Mickelson, Steele said, from whom he’s sought counsel.

Sunday, Steele talked of offseason work with the six-time major winner in his backyard. He talked wedge work. Short-game work. Course-management work.

Some mental-game work. Let’s start there.

Last week, during LIV’s event in Australia, Steele opened with a six-under 66, followed it up with a nine-birdie 64, and he led by one going into the final round. A win would be his first on either the PGA Tour or LIV since October of 2016, at the then-named Safeway Open. A win would pay him $4 mill. Eyes would be on him. The pressure ratcheted up.

Those nerves, too.

So before the round, Steele said Mickelson talked with him. The conversation started with questions. How was he feeling? What was he thinking? Steele thought if he could play “freely” like he had been, he’d have a shot.

Here, Mickelson had a thought.

“He’s like, that’s great. Let’s reframe it,” Steele said. “Let’s make it: ‘When I play freely, I can play freely, I will play freely.’ Let’s reframe it into that. I was saying: ‘And then I think it’ll be good enough.’ He’s like, ‘No, it will be good enough, you will play freely. This is what you need to do.’ So that was what I was trying to do.”

Brendan Steele says Phil Mickelson was a “big reason” for his victory at LIV Golf Adelaide, as the 41-year-old American won for the first time in more than six years.

Steele claimed a one-shot victory over Louis Oosthuizen at the Grange Golf Club thanks to a four-under 68 in the final round.

The three-time PGA Tour winner, who joined LIV in 2023, last won in October 2017 at the then-titled Safeway Open.

Speaking to media after clinching his win and the $4 million check, Steele opened up about his close relationship with Mickelson, saying he relies on the HyFlyers GC captain for advice on both his golf and mental game.

“I lean on Phil pretty hard with everything, with how to hit shots around the green, how to approach things,” he said. “He’s one of the best players ever, and he can give me advice. If he’s going to give me advice, I’m going to take it.

“I definitely want to listen to him, and he’s helped me a ton with everything from wedge play, short game, mental game. Just instilling confidence in myself, and he’s a big reason I’m sitting up here.”

Steele claimed the 36-hole lead heading into the final day thanks to rounds of 66 and 64. However, the nerves started to hit as he looked to return to the winners’ circle once again.

The recently concluded Masters saw the World #1 golfer, Scottie Scheffler take home his second green jacket after only playing 20 rounds in total at Augusta. He has now joined the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson as multiple Green Jacket winners. Notably, both the older legends didn’t fare too well last week, with a 60th and T43rd place finish, respectively. Moreover, during the entire week, Lefty perhaps found himself feeling somewhat out of place.

Not only was Tuesday evening’s Champions Dinner a 2023 repeat for the LIV golfer, but his experiences throughout the week and his involvement in the Saudi-backed league paint a bleak picture that perhaps his $200 million defection is not turning out to be as fruitful as he would have wanted it to be.

Phil Mickelson is perhaps not as involved in LIV Golf as he would’ve liked

The incident extends beyond just the Masters; rather, it harks back to 2022, when Lefty opted to join Greg Norman’s LIV Golf. While the community was initially taken aback, subsequent revelations about Mickelson’s contract continued to fuel the surprising turn of events. Mickelson stood out as the most accomplished golfer in the Saudi-backed league, and it was clear that he aspired to become its prominent figurehead, just like Tiger Woods is on the PGA Tour. Notably, Woods has now also ascended to Vice Chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises.

Lefty was the adamant LIV Golf loyalist who spoke highly of the league whenever he could and often engaged in controversial quarrels. He called out the PGA Tour, for their “obnoxious greed” and said he would use LIV Golf’s enormous financial resources as leverage against the PGA Tour. These comments even led to him sitting out Masters in 2022.

Whether it was backing the coming together of both tours or supporting his fellow LIV golfers, he was always at the center of things. Most recently, the 54-year-old even shared his sentiments over the LIV Golf and the PGA Tour merger, siding with his rival Rory McIlroy, who claimed a divide in golf was “not sustainable.”

However, despite his vocal presence online and in the press, Mickelson is far from taking up a ‘decision-making role’ like Woods has on the tour. The golfer has found himself excluded from many crucial matters, including the merger. Just recently at the Masters, when Lefty was asked about the PGA Tour’s meeting with Yasir al-Rumayyan last month, he quickly responded, “Others are handling that. I’m not involved. Others are taking care of that.”

On the other hand, when Woods was asked about the same, the 15x major champion had a far more clear answer. “I don’t know if we’re closer, but certainly we’re headed in the right direction,” he said.

This contrast somewhat goes to show that Lefty, despite being a celebrated golfer with so much legacy in the sport, is not being given the status of an ‘involved’ experienced veteran in the Saudi-backed league, unlike Woods on the PGA Tour. While this indicated the current state of being sidelined from the situation, a comparable incident also took place at the Champions Dinner and during the pressers at Augusta National, where Lefty again was not as involved.

Nick Faldo had lots to say about Phil after the Champions Dinner

Before the Masters, amidst a room brimming with professional golfers, the three-time Masters Champion remained silent while seated beside Nick Faldo. Later, Faldo revealed to Sky Sports that the LIV star had been “very quiet” during the meal on Tuesday. “He didn’t say a word. He was dead quiet, standing next to me,” said the golf legend, in almost a dilemma. “I wonder why?”

Furthermore, Lefty wasn’t even part of the three-day schedule for the Masters press conference, which included 14 players. During the same press conference, Tiger Woods was granted a 90-minute slot. Controversially, of course, this prompted reactions from Mickelson fans, who labeled it an “absolute disgrace.” Regardless, one thing was clear: Mickelson and Woods were treated quite differently, despite both being legends in the sport and at the Masters.