Phil Mickelson’s LIV Press Conference Takeaways: Never Did Infamous Interview, Believes PGA Tour Is Trending Down

Phil Mickelson spoke to the media prior to this weekend’s LIV Golf event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and while he’s been somewhat quiet on the course (one top-10 finish in six events), the first big name to be associated with the new series had some interesting comments.

LIV Golf 📈, PGA TOUR 📉 in. Phil Mickelson’s eyes. pic.twitter.com/M3qeYcl4WH

— theScore (@theScore) October 13, 2022

Among them:

• Mickelson denies doing the now infamous interview with author Alan Shipnuck, where the quote came out about the Saudi Arabians being “scary motherf***ers to deal with” and perhaps not wanting the rival league to succeed but just wanting it to bring change upon the PGA Tour, which he referred to as a dictatorship.
• Lefty claims that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are heading in opposite directions, saying, “I see LIV Golf trending upwards, I see the PGA Tour trending downwards, and I love the side that I’m on.”

Regarding the article by Shipnuck, Mickelson claims the quotes were taken from off-the-record conversations instead of a formal interview, which explains the quote that Mickelson technically didn’t do the interview.

Interesting moment from Phil’s LIV presser in Saudi Arabia. Asked about his previous comments about Saudi, he answers:

“So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck.” pic.twitter.com/fLIrlkyJe5

— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) October 13, 2022

Mickelson said:

“So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck… And I find that my experience with everybody associated with LIV Golf has been nothing but incredibly positive and I have the utmost respect for everybody that I’ve been involved with.”

In his defense, Shipnuck has said the conversation was on the record, and he will “go to his grave” knowing that as a fact.

Cover Image Via Twitter