Masters champions could be in for dinner unlike any other
The Masters Club is the formal name of the annual dinner Tuesday night at Augusta National during the Masters in April, and the guest list is restricted to Masters champions and Chairman Fred Ridley. Scottie Scheffler is in charge of the menu as the reigning champion, and one moment last year illustrates how this might be a dinner unlike any other. Scheffler and his wife took a short vacation to Tennessee, walked into a restaurant and were surprised to see Bubba Watson and his wife sitting at one of the tables.
news.yahoo.comMickelson asks to remove name from lawsuit against PGA Tour
Phil Mickelson, the driving force among PGA Tour players in the rival LIV Golf series, and three other players asked a federal judge Tuesday to remove their names from the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Ian Poulter filed separately to have their names removed. Mickelson's decision was not a surprise.
news.yahoo.comSmith overtakes Johnson for 2-shot lead in LIV Golf
Cameron Smith made a pair of 7-foot birdie putts to finish off his round of 4-under 68 and allow him to overtake Dustin Johnson going into the third and final day of the LIV Golf Invitational-Chicago. As easy as Johnson made it look in the opening round, Saturday at Rich Harvest Farms was such a struggle that he shot over par for the first time in the 14 rounds he has played in the Saudi-funded series. Johnson was lucky the deficit to Smith was only two shots.
news.yahoo.comColumn: Mickelson wins part of the battle, loses the war
Much like his style of golf, Phil Mickelson's imagination is only as good as his ability to pull off the shot. Mickelson has a right to feel somewhat vindicated by the bold and rapid changes coming to the PGA Tour. The idea — his idea, he can argue — is for the top players to compete against each other as often as 17 times, maybe more, for an average purse of $20 million.
news.yahoo.comColumn: Blunt talk means saying LIV Golf is all about money
Brooks Koepka likes to boast about his honesty. Koepka once accused Patrick Reed of cheating by “building sand castles” in a waste area in the Bahamas. “I’m always going to speak my mind and tell you what I think, and I think everybody in this room knows that,” he said at a PGA Championship preview day in 2020.
news.yahoo.comLIV Golf heads to Oregon, where local officials aren't happy
Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf is getting a chilly reception in Oregon, its first stop in the United States. This coming week, the series, which is paying enormous signing fees for players like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, descends on Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in tiny North Plains, nestled in the rolling hills west of Portland. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden is speaking out against the tournament, and some members of the pricy club also are uncomfortable with the situation.
news.yahoo.comMickelson meltdown comes early -- with a 4-putt at US Open
All it took was about two cringeworthy minutes and four putts from 12 feet to bring the golf world back to this: No matter where he plays, or how much money he makes, Phil Mickelson can sometimes remind us — of us. The player who built his brand as golf's everyman — only to risk it all with his move to a Saudi-backed startup that led to his suspension from the PGA Tour — looked like a weekend duffer in putting himself out of U.S. Open contention Thursday on the par-3 sixth. Mickelson hit his tee shot on the 196-yard par-3 to 12 feet, then waited while Louis Oosthuizen almost chipped in from the rough and Shane Lowry, putting on almost Mickelson's exact line, just missed to the right.
news.yahoo.comThumbs-up from Mickelson doesn't bring normalcy to US Open
Phil Mickelson lumbered his way down the first fairway and flashed a thumbs-up almost by habit, even if he wasn't responding to an occasional encouraging word from behind the ropes or in the grandstands. This is his 31st appearance, and any degree of normalcy — for Mickelson and so many other big names in golf — is hard to find. Brooks Koepka had heard enough.
news.yahoo.comPhil Mickelson not giving up on playing PGA Tour
Phil Mickelson isn't giving up on playing on the PGA Tour again, even if he is currently not welcome there. “I'm very appreciative of the many memories, opportunities, experiences, friendships and relationships the PGA Tour has provided and those are going to last a lifetime,” Mickelson said. Mickelson led a defection by 17 PGA Tour members to the LIV Golf series, a move the tour countered by suspending those who decided to keep their memberships.
news.yahoo.comMickelson arrives at Brookline and wild US Open week awaits
Luke Gannon is playing in his first U.S. Open and had one of those moments that made him realize this was a stage unlike any other the Kansan has played. Phil Mickelson was carrying only a wedge and a putter and waved him through. The Sunday before U.S. Open week is rarely more peaceful with only a few dozen players getting a look at the course, some caddies arriving ahead of their players to walk the course and check the yardages.
news.yahoo.comPGA chief slams Saudi-funded league as series of exhibitions
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan described the Saudi-funded league that has signed up Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau as a “series of exhibition matches” that spends billions of dollars on players without getting a return on its investment. Monahan also said players paid an exorbitant amount of money would “have to be living under a rock” to not know they would be criticized for the source of the money. LIV Golf is backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.
news.yahoo.comSaudi-backed LIV golf tour, bound for Illinois, tees up geopolitical intrigue and moral quandaries
Organizers say that their tour is taking a fresh approach to the game and giving lucrative new opportunities to its players. But It’s unclear how much fans will care about the politics once the series lands in Illinois.
chicagotribune.comPGA Tour says Saudi-paid players no longer eligible for tour
Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and other PGA Tour members who teed off in the Saudi-funded golf league Thursday are no longer eligible for PGA Tour events under penalties Commissioner Jay Monahan shared soon after the first tee shot was struck. The ban includes participation in the Presidents Cup, which would involve the South African trio of Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace. The USGA already has said eligible players can still compete in the U.S. Open next week.
news.yahoo.comUS Open to accept Mickelson and all eligible players
Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson are welcome to play the U.S. Open next week under a USGA decision announced Tuesday that puts the open nature of the championship over a player's decision to play in a Saudi-funded rival league. Mickelson and Johnson are among a dozen players in the LIV Golf Invitational this week who are exempt for the U.S. Open on June 16-19 at The Country Club outside Boston. Among other U.S. Open players who signed up for the new league are Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen and Kevin Na.
news.yahoo.comMickelson the last to sign up for Saudi-funded golf league
Phil Mickelson, a chief recruiter for a Saudi-funded rival league to the PGA Tour, is ending his four-month hiatus by adding his name to the 48-man field for the LIV Golf Invitational that starts Friday outside London. Mickelson will be joining Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and three other former major champions in a 54-hole tournament at Centurion Golf Club with $25 million in prize money and $4 million going to the individual winner. “I am ready to come back to play the game I love but after 32 years this new path is a fresh start, one that is exciting for me at this stage of my career,” Mickelson said in a statement posted on social media.
news.yahoo.comFormer PGA champ Stockton rues turnout at champions dinner
Dave Stockton won the 1970 PGA Championship at Southern Hills and his nostalgic return this week included the champions dinner for swapping stories of the great shots, the terrible ones and memories of career-making victories. Nobody misses the Masters champions dinner, Stockton noted. The other former PGA champions who were there: Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy, Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer, Padraig Harrington, Shaun Micheel, Rich Beem, Mark Brooks and Jeff Sluman.
news.yahoo.comMickelson decides not to defend title at PGA Championship
Phil Mickelson withdrew Friday from the PGA Championship, electing to extend his hiatus from golf following his incendiary comments about a Saudi-funded rival league he supports and the PGA Tour he accused of greed. Mickelson made history in the PGA last year when he won at Kiawah Island at age 50, making him the oldest champion in 161 years of the majors. Mickelson met the deadline to sign up for the PGA Championship on April 25, though his manager said Lefty was unsure about playing but wanted to keep his options open.
news.yahoo.comReport: Mickelson had $40 million in gambling losses
Federal auditors investigating Phil Mickelson's role in an insider trading scheme found his gambling losses totaled more than $40 million from 2010 to 2014, according to an excerpt from Alan Shipnuck's forthcoming biography. Mickelson is the defending champion. Mickelson has been out of public view since the final round of the Saudi International on Feb. 6.
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