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Phil Mickelson Is Posting Wild-Eyed Videos Ripping the USGA

Is he serious or pulling our leg? We're not sure, but Phil Mickelson is convinced the USGA's tweaks to equipment rules are hurting the average player more than pros.

Matt Newman

Phil Mickelson Is Posting Wild-Eyed Videos Ripping the USGA
Phil Mickelson Is Posting Wild-Eyed Videos Ripping the USGA /

The top 30 PGA Tour pros on the FedEx Cup points list are in Atlanta right now playing for $15 million.

Phil Mickelson is in his backyard (or what I imagine his backyard looks like) posting  impassioned videos to social media that might be serious, might be tongue-in-cheek efforts to chase the Player Impact Program's $40 million in bonuses, or might be somewhere in between. Maybe he's just bored? Take it away Phil:

There's a lot going on here. Phil starts hot with a correlation-does-not-equal-causation reminder that segues into a criticism of the USGA's rumored (by Phil) movement to restrict the length of driver shafts. From there, Phil pulls out a deep cut from his catalog and re-litigates the square-groove debate. He ends with something new — perimeter-weighted golf balls vs. liquid-center golf balls.

His thesis is the USGA misinterprets data when it makes equipment rules and hurts the average player. That's a point worthy of discussion and something Phil might be asked about this month at the Ryder Cup.

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Matt Newman
MATT NEWMAN

Matt Newman is a senior editor at Morning Read. He is a digital editor and SEO innovator. He was most recently managing editor for content at Turner Sports where he had the pleasure of working on NCAA.com, PGA.com, RyderCup.com and March Madness Live. Newman was on the Turner team that won an Emmy for March Madness coverage and previously was executive editor, news editor and a senior producer at GOLF.com He likes golf, gambling, science and Ben Hogan. 

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