Major champion Phil Mickelson has said one of the reasons he preferred the new LIV Golf Invitation Series was its 54-hole events. That being said, it put his position at the US Open at risk.
While he still played in the US Open on Thursday at The Country Club, Brookline, he failed to answer a question about how he would explain why he decided to participate in the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
This year’s US Open was Mickelson’s first home tournament since he left the PGA Tour for LIV. As he played, all eyes were on him. Fans of all ages pointed at Mickelson and cheered for him. When his name was announced, the crowd could not help but screamed with joy. The time was perfect, too, as it was Mickelson’s 52nd birthday.
Although he shot an 80 in the opening round and missed the cut in the 2021 Open, fans were excited to have him back. Author Alan Shipnk has said that Mickelson was quite known for his gambling problems, which ended up causing him trouble. Once, he recorded a loss of $40 million within a four-year period from 2010 to 2014.
Mickelson’s participation in LIV golf resulted in him being banned from the PGA Tour. He is still eligible to play in the US Open because it is run by the United States Golf Association.
Regardless, many of his fans do not seem to really care about Mickelson receiving $200 million from the Saudi government’s “public investment fund”. “I would’ve done the same thing,” one fan said.
Troubled Performance
Mickelson, who is better known as Lefty, hit just six of the 14 fairways. He only scored eight greens out of 18, which were also not very far. He recorded a drive distance average of 267 yards, which was the shortest number of any golfer in the 156 field. He did quite well with 78, landing eight shots over par and 144th. There were 15 amateurs on the field, and 12 of them had much better luck than Mickelson.
On the first hole, the veteran hit from the left with a 7-foot putt for par. On the third hole, he had an eight-footer for par and hit a wide right. He missed another par that was put on the fifth hole, which appeared to surprise Mickelson himself.
Nontheless, the highlight of his round occurred on the par-3 11th. This was when Mickelson scored an eight-foot birdie, the only one of the round, but then he yanked his tee shot into thick rough on the right side on No. 12, which resulted in him requiring two shots to get back to the fairway. He then carded a double-bogey six to drop to seven over.
Mickelson will have to miss the weekend in his 31st US Open unless he goes really low in Friday’s second round. This would be his eighth attempt to become the sixth man to complete a career grand slam in the Masters era. Mickelson is a six-time runner up of the US Open.