Phil Mickelson's Crazy and Controversial Season Ends With Loss to Cam Smith in LIV Golf Team Finale

With a birdie on the final hole, the world No. 3 ended the season for the Hy Flyers and Phil, whose comments, actions and new league were the talk of the year.

DORAL, Fla. — A year that began in Hawaii without a hint of what was to come ended in Florida on Friday for Phil Mickelson, a Cam Smith birdie putting a close to what will surely be regarded as the most tumultuous, controversial season a popular, Hall-of-Fame golfer could endure.

Much of it for Mickelson was self-inflicted, but there was nothing he could do on the 8th green on the Blue Monster course at Trump Doral, where a tense match with the reigning British Open champion came to a conclusion when Mickelson was not able to convert a birdie putt and then watched the Australian hole his on the same line.

For a few hours the golf was the thing Friday, an unusual retreat from the drama that has surrounded LIV Golf from its onset in June. The actual golf has never really been the story, and going forward that will have to change, but getting to watch a six-time major winner go up against one of the best players in the world was fairly compelling on a course long-ago made famous.

There were few birdies, but the match was close throughout, with it coming down to their 18th hole—the par-5 8th—where Mickelson was unable to get up and down from a greenside bunker while Smith did from the back of the green.

Given the format of the LIV Golf Invitational Series Miami Team Championship, Mickelson’s Hy Flyers team that also had Matt Wolff, Bernd Wiesberger and Cameron Tringale was eliminated.

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And that means Mickelson’s eight-tournament run with LIV Golf was complete for 2022.

“I’m pretty surprised at how far LIV has come because there was a lot of uncertainty, like who would play in London," Mickelson said following the round. “You look at the strength of the league now and you have a lot of really strong players and you have a lot of really strong characters in the game. Whether you love them or hate them, there's a lot of guys here that people want to see.

“Internationally, there's a lot of support and desire to have tournaments. We're having a lot of current tournaments on multiple tours coming to us wanting a LIV event, we only have 14 so it's not like we have a lot to go around, but we're going to have an exciting year next year with a lot of strong play and a lot of strong tournaments."

Mickelson, 52, who just 18 months ago won the PGA Championship to become the oldest major winner in the game’s history, has been the subject of considerable backlash this year as he called out the PGA Tour for its “obnoxious greed," was critical of the Saudi regime that is bankrolling LIV Golf in another interview and ultimately signed on for a reported $200 million.

Along the way, Mickelson took a four-month break from competitive golf and was suspended by the PGA Tour, emerging in June at the first LIV Golf Invitational Series event outside of London, then facing numerous questions about his motives.

There was even some controversy Friday during his match with Smith, who wondered why Mickelson was taking so long.

“I think Phil maybe had some gamesmanship in there a little bit," Smith said. “He seemed to take forever today. I think we were three or four holes behind. So that was a bit painful. But other than that, it was good."

Mickelson lamented the missed opportunity against Smith, whom he knew would be a formidable opponent. A victory in his singles match would have flipped the team match as well and seen his Hy Flyers team advance to the final eight teams that will be in action Saturday.

Instead, Mickelson can again look ahead. He is unlikely to play until the Saudi International, an Asian Tour event that is scheduled for early February and likely prior to the first of LIV’s 14 events, which have yet to be announced.

“I'm in the majors for the next three years, so I hadn't really planned on playing this year and I had to reprogram my mindset to get out here,’’ Mickelson said. “I didn't play well starting out. I’m starting to play some pretty good golf, so heading into this offseason, I'm going to put in a little bit of work and see if I can make a nice run the next couple of years and play a level that I know I can. I'm starting to start play a lot better.

“We have three months off. It’s actually a really good thing. It’ll allow me a chance to get in the physical shape I need to be able to swing the club the way I need to speed-wise, as well as practice with enough reps to sustain that. This off time is pretty important to let everything recover and get ready for next season."

By then, who knows what will unfold? Will LIV Golf have world ranking points? Will there be a shakeup of all the LIV Golf teams? Will there be some kind of peace with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour?

“I think there’s a lot of possibilities,’’ Mickelson said. “I think over the course of the next year a lot of things will happen and iron themselves out."

Four teams had byes on Friday and will play the four winning teams Saturday in the same format: two singles matches and one foursomes match. The team that gets two out of three points will advance to Sunday’s final round.

On that day, the four remaining teams—16 players—will play individual stroke paly with the all scores for each team counting toward the team total. The winning team receives $16 million from the $50 million purse. Each of the four losing teams on Friday received $1 million, with $250,000 going to each player.