The three-time Masters champion will not play at Augusta in two weeks, continuing silence away from golf with plenty of conjecture but no official reason.
Fifty-year-old men don't win major championships, they remember about them. If they go to the field because of the glory of the past, they recollect the memories and enjoy the walk. hoist the trophy? They are more suitable for dusting the person sitting on the mantle.
It wasn't long ago that Phil Mickelson was drinking from the Wanamaker Trophy and sharing his joy with the rest of the world via social media.
He had every right to enjoy one of golf's grand achievements, a victory at the PGA Championship that made him the oldest player to win a major championship at age 50 – a record held by Julius Boros for 53 years. broke it.
If Mickelson has never done more work in the game, what a great achievement it is. What is dispatch? What a way to top a career.
now what?
Mickelson isn't playing at the Masters, and it's simply shocking.
From ultimate glory to ultimate outrage in just a few months, if not weeks.
One of the sport's greatest champions, who was to play in his 30th Masters and was a three-time winner, has pulled out of the first major championship of the year due to his comments about the PGA Tour, the LIV Golf Invitational. series and its partnership with the Saudi Arabian government.
He was criticized by fellow players. The companies he supported have left him. Their longtime club sponsor, Callaway, "put their relationship on hold." And now Mickelson, who hasn't played in a tournament in almost two months, is extending his holiday with all kinds of speculations but no official reason.
personal problems? money issues? PGA Tour suspension? Augusta National telling her to stay at home? It's all out there, none of it confirmed. We are left only to speculate.
Is there no way back for Mickelson? Earlier this month at the Players Championship, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suggested it was up to Mickelson to call and he would respond. But getting to that point seems harder than you imagined.
PGA Tour veteran Webb Simpson said, "They've been loved for so long. People will forgive. The sport in this world looks at stars or celebrities. If they come back and say they were wrong, So people get over it. I sure hope so. He means a lot to me. Gave me a little bit of advice so I want to see him come back."
Rory McIlroy, who was highly critical of Mickelson at the Genesis Invitational last month when he said Mickelson's comments were "naive, selfish, cocky, ignorant" - also opened the door for an apology three weeks ago at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
"It's unfortunate," McIlroy said. “I think Phil has been a wonderful ambassador for the game of golf, yet a wonderful ambassador for the game of golf. It is unfortunate that some of the comments he thought he was making were confident or off-the-record Got out and... were used against him, but this whole situation is unfortunate."
"Look, Phil will be back," said McIlroy. "I think the players want to see him back. He's done an amazing job for the game of golf, and he has represented the game of golf very well in the entirety of his career. We all make mistakes. We say everything we want to take back. There is no different in this.
"But we should be allowed to make mistakes, and we should be allowed to apologize and people should be allowed to forgive us and move on. Hopefully at some level he will come back and he will, and people Will welcome him and be glad that he is back."
As of now, this is not happening. It's been a month since he apologized and his last tournament at the Saudi International was seven weeks ago. It was no surprise when he skipped tournaments like the WM Phoenix Open or the Genesis Invitational or the Honda Classic.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational was not considered a major lapse for him. But not the Players Championship? He had not missed the tournament since 2003, when his wife was pregnant. Valspar Championship? He played it last year and was said to be considering a comeback. WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship? It's only two weeks before the Masters, and Mickelson needs competition.
That was probably the biggest clue that Mickelson was not on the field this week. When his name was removed from the Masters tournament website's list of contestants on Monday, it only confirmed what many considered inevitable, adding more intrigue to a remarkable situation.
We're barely 10 months away from the winning scene on Kiawah Island, where Mickelson was cornered by the public while attempting to play the 18th hole on the final day of the PGA Championship. Mickelson hits the right shot from the ruff to find the hare and take the win, with Mickelson chanting his name and celebrating with him. It was such a great sight, a strange ending.
"It is a moment that I will always cherish," he said.
Now that Mickelson is in exile, that great victory has somehow overshadowed the crowd that was chasing him on the final hole.
The calmness of Augusta National seemed a natural place to start healing, but the pain would only remain with one more question: Can Mickelson skip his PGA Championship title defense in Southern Hills?