The bombshell dropped last night and it could be a turning point in the history of Golf, Phil Mickelson, the defending champion of the PGA championship has withdrawn from for this year‘s competition taking place next week in Tulsa, Southern Hills golf club, the news came through an announcement from the PGA
Last year Phil Mickelson made history by becoming the oldest player to win a major championship, a year later he will become only the third player not to defend his PGA Championship, last was Tiger Woods in 2008.
The win last year was until now the highlight of his brilliant carrier, but things started to go south at the end of last year when he gave an interview for a book that is coming out on his biography, the book was written by Alan Shipnuck is coming out next week and in the same week as the PGA championship.
Mickelson made some comments regarding the Saudi new funded Liv golf series where Mickelson is one of the first superstar players to have publicly said that he is going to play this new super league, but things went awry when a comment he made privately to Alan Criticizing the PGA Tour and Saudi become public, which create a backlash in the golf world and made Phil issue an official apology and stepping aside from golf, he hasn’t played competitive golf since early February in the Saudi Internationa.
Phil made the necessary steps under the PGA rules to register and play next week’s PGA championship and defend his historic win last year, the news was welcomed by the golf world especially since Tiger Woods is also going to play, but the news broke on Wednesday when the commissioner of the PGA Tour John Monahan sent a letter to the players announcing that the waiver to play in the LIV Golf series is rejected, the series is scheduled to start next month with the first event in London, by denying players the waiver to play in the upcoming series the PGA Tour made it clear that players who chose to play the new Super League will be subject to disciplinary procedures and even suspencion from the Tour, and it looks like Phil Mickelson has made his choice and he is going to be the Superstar on the new LIV Golf series.
What is interesting to follow is if Phill will be playing all the eight events in the new series and if he will be playing in the Majors coming in the summer, US Open and the 150th The Open in the UK.
Some other big names are connected to the new leagues, such as Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood.
Nevertheless, Phill Mickelson not defending his title next week in the PGA Championship is not gonna be good for the PGA or the PGA Tour, it definitely not good for golf as golf fans will not get to see the 6 times major winner playing to defend his title.
