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Phil Mickelson Makes Brutal Quintuple Bogey, Drops Out of Contention at LIV Bedminster

Mickelson quickly lost sight of a potential LIV victory when he made two costly swings.

Gabrielle Herzig

Phil Mickelson Makes Brutal Quintuple Bogey, Drops Out of Contention at LIV Bedminster
Phil Mickelson Makes Brutal Quintuple Bogey, Drops Out of Contention at LIV Bedminster /

In the wake of explosive allegations made about Phil Mickelson’s gambling, it was rather surprising to see the six-time major champion’s name near the top of the LIV Bedminster leaderboard after 36 holes. Mickelson hasn’t finished higher than 15th in the individual competition all season. 

But after two rounds at Trump National Bedminster, Mickelson sat at 5 under for the tournament, tied for second and four shots behind solo leader Cameron Smith. That meant that Mickelson would be in the final pairing on Sunday at the LIV event, playing for his first victory on the breakaway tour. 

“I haven’t won in two years but I’m in the last group with a shot tomorrow. It’ll be tough since I’m four back of Cameron Smith but I’m looking forward to it,” Mickelson wrote on Twitter the night before the tournament’s final round. 

But Mickelson’s hopes of such a result were quickly crushed on the par-3 7th hole, where he dropped five shots in a matter of minutes. 

Mickelson dunked two balls in the water on the 191-yard par-3, missing short by several yards with back-to-back shots. 

When the three-time Masters champion finally put his tee shot back in play, his ball still spun off the front of the green and into Bedminster’s thick rough. A poor effort on the chip shot left Mickelson with a 10-foot putt for quadruple bogey, but Mickelson couldn’t get it to drop. 

The HyFlyers captain left the hole with a quintuple-bogey 8, and his name quickly plummeted down the leaderboard. 

Earlier this week, Billy Walters, Mickelson’s longtime gambling partner, released an excerpt of his book Gambler, Secrets from a Life at Risk, first published by the Fire Pit Collective. 

Walters claimed that Mickelson has bet more than $1 billion on sports and even attempted to wager on the 2012 Ryder Cup while he was playing in it. Mickelson later denied betting on the Ryder Cup in a statement. 

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Gabrielle Herzig
GABRIELLE HERZIG

Gabrielle Herzig is a Breaking and Trending News writer for Sports Illustrated Golf. Previously, she worked as a Golf Digest Contributing Editor, an NBC Sports Digital Editorial Intern, and a Production Runner for FOX Sports at the site of the 2018 U.S. Open. Gabrielle graduated as a Politics Major from Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she was a four-year member and senior-year captain of the Pomona-Pitzer women’s golf team. In her junior year, Gabrielle studied abroad in Scotland for three months, where she explored the Home of Golf by joining the Edinburgh University Golf Club.

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