Phil Mickelson has been in the headlines repeatedly for weeks and months. The reason for this is not his sporting achievements but his comments on the Saudi Golf League. In November, he spoke with Alan Shipnuck about his motives for his Saudi lobbying. In the conversation with Shipnuck, the American compares his (actual) home tour to a dictatorship and at the same time justifies his looking the other way when it comes to the origin of Saudi money.
Phil Mickelson: “They’re scary motherf_s to get involved with”
Phil Mickelson is well aware of who is behind the Saudi Golf League: “We know they murdered [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a terrible human rights record. They execute people there because they are gay. Why would I even consider that, knowing all that?” For Mickelson, the answer is clearly summed up in one point: “Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape the way the PGA Tour operates.
They were able to deal with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no way to fight back. As nice as [PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] comes across, if you don’t have leverage, he’s not going to do the right thing. And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage.” So it’s all about Mickelson taking a swipe at the PGA Tour and making big bucks in the process. But he doesn’t seem entirely convinced about the new league, as he let slip to Shipnuck. “I’m not sure I even want the SGL to succeed, but just the idea of it allows us to work things out with the PGA Tour.”
“The PGA Tour is sitting on billions of dollars”.
In the further course of the interview, Phil Mickelson explains his dissatisfaction and criticism of the PGA Tour’s media handling. He is concerned with the possible assets behind the media rights and image materials of the players and tournaments. According to Mickelson, these are worth billions of dollars in NFTs. But these digital value tokens of individual images are not due to the PGA Tour, according to Mickelson, but to the players who are featured on the media. “I don’t want to say it’s annoying, but it’s definitely beyond frustrating,” Mickelson said of the image and media rights situation.
“The Tour is sitting on billions of dollars worth of NFTs,” Mickelson said in the interview. “All of that has to belong to the players. We made these shots, we created these moments, we should be the ones benefiting from it.” Mickelson’s biggest point of criticism is the PGA Tour’s handling of its revenue. “How the hell is it legal for them to have that kind of money at their disposal?” he asks Shipnuck, noting that the Tour is actually a nonprofit organization. Mickelson promptly provides the answer himself, “Not at all. But they want more and more. They have to control everything. Their egos don’t allow them to make the concessions they need.”
“The PGA Tour is a dictatorship”
Mickelson has harsh words for the PGA Tour and the way it operates: “The Tour acts like it’s a democracy, but it’s really a dictatorship. Instead of catering to the broad mass of players, the PGA Tour only supports the top players, he says. Mickelson would like to see a turnaround and a better perception of the large mass of “middle-class players. He wants to achieve this with the Saudi money and the pressure on the American tour behind it.