Phil Mickelson: the downfall of America’s ‘apple pie’ golf champion

Phil Mickelson won the 2021 PGA Championship

‘Phil the Thrill’: tarnished

(Image credit: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

published 19 May 2022

A year ago, Phil Mickelson wrote himself into the record books by becoming the oldest golfer to win a major title, said Ewan Murray in The Observer. The then 50-year-old, long one of America’s most admired players, was “mobbed” by adoring fans after triumphing in the US PGA Championship.

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It’s not a scene you can imagine happening today, said Daniel Zeqiri in The Daily Telegraph. For in the past 12 months, the player known as “Phil the Thrill” has suffered a “spectacular decline in popularity”. His problems began in February, when it was revealed that he was considering joining a Saudi-backed rebel tour, led by the former Australian champion Greg Norman. The comments Mickelson made about the scheme made him appear insincere and duplicitous: he insisted it was worth taking seriously as it presented a “once in-a-lifetime opportunity” to reshape how the sport was run, yet at the same time described the Saudis as “scary motherf*****s”. Since then, Mickelson’s “apple pie” reputation has been further tarnished by revelations about the extent of his alleged gambling addiction: according to a new biography, he has frittered away $40m with it.

All this means that the 2022 US PGA Championship opens this week with the sport in a state resembling “civil war”, said Derek Lawrenson in The Mail on Sunday. Most younger players – “happy with the amounts they make on the long-established PGA Tour” – want to maintain the status quo. Ranged against them are a few “grumpy old rebels” who are ready to “forsake their principles in favour of the easy millions on offer from the sportswashing Saudis”.