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His Delivery May Have Been Wrong, But Phil Mickelson's Message Was Right

The Hall of Famer long believed star players should play together more and be paid more, and that's all about to happen on the PGA Tour.

Bob Harig

His Delivery May Have Been Wrong, But Phil Mickelson's Message Was Right
His Delivery May Have Been Wrong, But Phil Mickelson's Message Was Right /

ATLANTA – Phil Mickelson’s last appearance at East Lake for the Tour Championship was four years ago, and given how things have transpired, he will probably never be back.

But he was on plenty of minds this week at the season-ending Tour Championship, especially in light of what went down prior to the tournament, when commissioner Jay Monahan announced some sweeping changes that will see a significant increases in prize money going forward along with the top players in the game coming together more often.

Sound familiar?

While many of the words that caused Mickelson considerable grief back in February were viewed as harsh—and caused him to go into exile for four months—there is a sense that his underlying message was heard.

Vindication is likely too strong a word to characterize how this went down, but Mickelson might be sitting somewhere nodding his head and saying, “What took you so long?’’

When you get past the rhetoric associated with his “obnoxious greed’’ comments concerning the PGA Tour and his belief about using the LIV Golf League as leverage to extract more from the PGA Tour, you are left with a couple of truths.

Mickelson has long believed that the star players are not compensated in relation to their worth; that there are too many tournaments and that the big names should play together more often; and that the PGA Tour was sitting on a pile of money that should be going to the players.

While his complaints about not getting to own his media rights were off-base—no sports league grants that to players, otherwise television rights fees and marketing agreements would prove to be far less valuable—he seemingly had a point as it related to other issues.

“He probably didn’t communicate it very well,’’ said PGA Tour veteran Adam Scott of Mickelson. “I think the hardest thing for the Tour is it’s trying to be all things to all people. It’s a very, very hard thing to do. It’s impossible to please everybody. They certainly can’t have everybody happy, but you’ve got to please someone.

“And I think that’s kind of what Phil might have been trying to say. He’s been on Tour a long time and maybe he felt that strongly about it. With all of the things going on, I think it’s fair to say that the balance of the pro game was a little bit out of shape. Hopefully these are steps to get the balance.’’

The big changes that Monahan announced centered around the requirement that the top players—as determined by the Player Impact Program—play a minimum of 20 tournaments, with 17 of them the same.

Along with previously announced increases for next year and those announced by Monahan last week, more than $100 million in prize money will be added in 2023. The PIP is being increased from $50 million to $100 million. Regular tournaments, as scheduled, will see prize money bumps as well.

It’s probably not as much as Mickelson got to sign with LIV Golf, but it’s significant. And it suggests that perhaps this could have been done before. Monahan said a majority of the money is coming from a reserve fund the Tour grows, as well as increased help from title sponsors.

Isn’t that what Mickelson was suggesting?

“I don’t think he was the only one who thought (some of those things),’’ Scott said. “I’ve checked in with some people in the executive office at the Tour and I’ve also thought that should be a direction the Tour goes.

“With no ill feeling to anyone. I think our product has been diluted. Our players were spread thin. And that’s changing, hopefully, that’s been identified and rectified. And it’ll be good if the mark responds and hopefully that is what they want to see.’’

Billy Horschel has been a harsh critic of LIV Golf and was not willing to go so far as to give Mickelson and LIV Golf credit. “When I heard that, it irked me a little bit,’’ he said.

Horschel noted that Mickelson was not the only player “on his high horse’’ about seeking change for the Tour.

“There has been a lot of talk among the top players over the past few years about what they would like the future model to look like,’’ he said. “It just allowed everything to speed along a little bit.

“I have tremendous respect for Phil but I can’t give him credit for what our product looks like. I give credit to the entirety of the PGA Tour, and finally, all of the players getting together and deciding what we wanted and giving them a blueprint of what it should look like and how it should go.’’

No matter where you stand on the issue of LIV Golf and all of its disruption, it happened, in part for some of the reasons Mickelson —and others—outlined: The lack of guaranteed compensation in golf as well as the notion that stars were underpaid.

LIV went off the charts with its commitment to such efforts. The PGA Tour has responded with more modest but certainly not inconsequential upgrades.

The PGA Tour’s season is complete, with the next event not for another three weeks to kick off the last calendar-year schedule.

LIV Golf resumes this week with an event outside of Boston, and then two weeks later—the same as the PGA Tour’s Fortinet Championship—another tournament outside of Chicago.

And the debate will continue.

Unintended Consequences

There is bound to be fallout from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan’s announcement last week that the top players will be required to play all of the “elevated’’ events and 20 total in order to be considered for the lucrative Player Impact Program that will offer $100 million in bonuses to 20 players.

Jon Rahm, who won last year’s U.S. Open and presumably could be one of the 20, was at the player-only meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, ahead of the BMW Championship. So he would know what was discussed. But he seemed a bit surprised by what Monahan announced.

Rahm, from Spain, also plays on the DP World Tour, which requires four tournaments outside of the major championships for membership—and Ryder Cup participation. He was asked if the new PGA Tour edict would make that more difficult.

“If we have to play all those 20, then yeah, 100 percent,’’ Rahm said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it changes, because that puts me in a difficult position. If I go and play in Europe in the fall like I’m going to, I have to play from January to August (on the PGA Tour) 20 times. I think this is my 17th from January and I don’t think I could add any more.

“Especially with Ryder Cup and having to play four in Europe, yeah, I think it’s a bit of an ask, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they revise a bit of a rule or make an exception for some players. But if they do it for players like me and Rory, they might have to do it for everybody.’’

A couple of takeaways from Rahm’s response.

Was he not in the same meeting led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy? And is what was discussed significantly different than Monahan announced?

Rahm played 18 events on the PGA Tour schedule starting in January, including all eight of the elevated events that were already part of the 2023 slate. Four more are to be added. Rahm basically has to add two events over nine months to make this work, and that seems far more doable since he did not venture onto the DP World Tour at all except for the Scottish Open—which also counts as a PGA Tour event.

He then has four events to play on the DP World Tour, and based on his past this seems imminently doable. Last year he skipped the BMW PGA—which is in two weeks—which he is planning to play this year. He played two events in Spain. Those three along with the Scottish fulfill the obligation. So would playing the Ryder Cup. As would competing in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

The idea of changing the policy would seem remote. The entire point was to get the top players together more often. And in order to assure this, some sacrifices are going to be necessary.

In Rahm’s case, he can fulfill all of his obligations by playing 23 times worldwide.

He is on his way to playing at least 21 this year. He played that many last year. He played 25 in 2019.

As for changing the policy, Rahm said: “You’re asking the wrong guy. If you want to know about that stuff, you know who of the two players you have to ask,’’ he said, smiling.

Fore! Things

1. Rory McIlroy became the first player to win the FedEx Cup three times. He’s won a bonus of $10 million, $15 million and now $18 million.

2. Scottie Scheffler was attempting to become the first player since 1947 to capture his first five PGA Tour titles in the same season. He ended up with four wins, his last coming at the Masters. For the year, he won nearly $15 million in official prize money and another $5.75 million in FedEx bonus money.

3. Jon Rahm’s streak of eight consecutive top-10 finishes in FedEx Cup playoff events came to an end at the Tour Championship, where he tied for 15th after a final-round 71. His streak was the best in the history of the FedEx Cup.

4. Cameron Tringale made his move to LIV Golf official via Twitter on Sunday and will leave the PGA Tour having made more than $17 million in career earnings—the most of any player without a victory.

Format Talk

The staggered-strokes format for the Tour Championship and determining the FedEx Cup champion has now seen four iterations, with Rory McIlroy in 2019 and again this year coming from behind to snag the title. Dustin Johnson and Patrick Cantlay had started in the top position in 2020 and 2021 and went on to win the overall title—even though they didn’t shoot the lowest 72-hole score at East Lake.

The format not only leads to the possibility of a blowout—Scheffler began the week with a two-shot advantage but he was caught and tied for a good bit of the third round—as well as someone shooting the best score and not getting a trophy. Scheffler appeared on his way to a big win Sunday, playing the finish of the third round in 4 under to take a six-shot lead. But it was gone six holes into the final round before he finally fell short on the 18th.

It ended up being an exciting final day. But the reaction to the format remains mixed and figuring out something better is not simple.

“Yeah, I don’t know,’’ said Max Homa, who shot 62 on Friday and barely felt like he made a dent. “We talk a lot about it. I listen to a lot of what you guys (media) say about it. I’ve been saying this lately, I don’t think it’s perfect. I don’t know what the answer is, so I’m not going to complain about it.

“I think we’re not football, we’re not basketball, we’re not baseball. Just because the Patriots are undefeated do we need to then start them with a two-touchdown lead? Because if feels like that year they should have won the Super Bowl; they didn’t. That’s football.

“But golf is different, and I don’t think this is awful. I talked to Justin Thomas about he’s mentioned it before. Like when he started the tournament 2 up (in 2019), and he said he got in the middle of the fairway on the first hole and hit a 9-iron to 35 feet and was like, 'why am I protecting a lead? There’s 72 holes to go.'

“You look at most leads going into Sunday, 2 up does not mean a whole lot for anybody not named Tiger Woods. Yeah, it could get boring, but it might have been boring regardless.’’

Perhaps the biggest problem with the FedEx Cup playoffs is the word … playoffs. The format is simply not what we are used to seeing in other sports that conduct playoffs, where teams—even the best teams—can get eliminated early.

The PGA Tour wants no part of that. It wants those who have had the best seasons to make it to the Tour Championship, and that pretty much happens. But it also requires you to play some decent golf in the playoffs too. Case in point: Collin Morikawa, who was No. 1 heading into the playoffs in 2021 and had a poor playoff run, dropping all the way to 26th.

A simple and dramatic way to do it would be to have all who qualify for the Tour Championship—all 30—start at zero and play it out. But the players are mostly against that idea, too. That’s true "playoffs" there, as someone who barely got in could win the entire thing. It would make it more dramatic, for sure.

The Masters Countdown

The first round of the Masters is in 220 days, and the 30 players who made it to Atlanta are among those who will receive invitations to the first major championship of 2023.

Starting with the Fortinet Championship in two weeks, there will be nine opportunities in the fall to win a PGA Tour event and get an invitation. And that resumes in January with all PGA Tour events leading up to the Masters.

The top 50 in the Official World Ranking at the end of 2022 will also get an invitation as will those in the top 50 two weeks prior to the Masters.

Social Matters

 > Rory McIlroy after his FedEx Cup victory.

> And Tiger with his congrats.

> Max Homa gave away tickets—then lamented playing with Rory McIlroy.

> Greg Norman took some time to gloat over the changes to the PGA Tour schedule.

> Brandt Snedeker won the 2012 FedEx Cup.

Next Up

For the first time since the holiday break in December, there will be no PGA Tour event. The 2021-22 season concluded on Sunday at the Tour Championship, and there are two weeks off prior to the start of the 2022-23 season that will begin Sept. 15 at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California.

This week the Korn Ferry Tour has the last of its three Korn Ferry Finals events at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship where 25 PGA Tour cards—along with the 25 awarded through the regular season —will be determined.

Published
Bob Harig
BOB HARIG

Bob Harig is a senior writer covering golf for Sports Illustrated. He has more than 25 years experience on the beat, including 15 at ESPN. Harig is a regular guest on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio and has written two books, "DRIVE: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods" and "Tiger and Phil: Golf's Most Fascinating Rivalry." He graduated from Indiana University where he earned an Evans Scholarship, named in honor of the great amateur golfer Charles (Chick) Evans Jr. Harig, a former president of the Golf Writers Association of America, lives in Clearwater, Fla.

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