Phil Mickelson Says He Did Not Bet on the Ryder Cup: ‘I Would Never Undermine the Integrity of the Game’

In a statement, Phil Mickelson denied Billy Walters’s allegations from a new book that he bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup in which he played.

Phil Mickelson said he did not place a wager on the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, as noted sports gambler Billy Walters alleged in a book that they had discussed doing. 

In a statement given to Sports Illustrated, Mickelson said Thursday he didn’t make that bet nor gamble on his own golf.

“I never bet on the Ryder Cup,” Mickelson said. “While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game. I have also been very open about my gambling addiction.

“I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me, and I feel good about where I am now.”

Mickelson had declined to speak to reporters earlier in the day following the pro-am at the LIV Golf Bedminster event he is competing in starting Friday.

Walters, a Las Vegas professional gambler who was convicted of a felony, claims Mickelson could have saved him from going to prison had he testified in his inside stock trading case, wrote an excerpt from his book Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk, at the Fire Pit Collective website.

In it, Walters claims that Mickelson might have bet as much as $1 billion over the past 30 years and lost $100 million, figures he said he based on his own accounting and two sources.

He also recounted a story from the 2012 Ryder Cup, where Mickelson was confident about a U.S. victory. Walters said Mickelson wanted to bet $400,000 on a U.S. victory, and Walters said he told Mickelson: “Have you lost your f---ing mind? Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose [the former Cincinnati Reds manager who was banned from baseball for betting on games]? “You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer. You’d risk all that for this? I want no part of it.”

Walters said Mickelson replied “All right, all right,” and wrote that he was unsure whether Mickelson placed the bet elsewhere.

The U.S. team lost that Ryder Cup as Europe made a dramatic final-day comeback after trailing 10–6 entering the final singles session. Mickelson, who had been 3–0 in his team matches, was 1-up on England’s Justin Rose with two holes to play but lost them both, one of the key matches in a 14½ to 13½ defeat.

Walters said that he had a five-year betting partnership with Mickelson in which they shared in the money wagered and in any profits. That relationship ended in 2014. They had first met several years earlier at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and became friends and golf-playing pals.

In 2017, Walters was convicted of inside trading and served a five-year prison sentence. Mickelson became embroiled in the controversy, because he allegedly received stock tips from Walters under the guise of using the profits to repay Walters for his gambling debts.

Mickelson was never charged but was a relief defendant in Walters’s case and was required to pay back some $1 million—plus interest—he made in the stock deal. Under the advice of counsel, he declined to testify at the trial. In the book, Walters wrote that Mickelson “refused to tell a simple truth” that could have kept him from going to prison.

When Mickelson signed a lucrative guaranteed contract with LIV Golf last year believed to be for $200 million up front, considerable speculation centered on Mickelson’s known gambling history and that he needed the money to repay debts.

Before playing his first event with LIV Golf, Mickelson spoke to SI and was asked specifically about the gambling issues and whether they were at the root of his decision to leave the PGA Tour and leave for LIV Golf.

“My gambling got to a point of being reckless and embarrassing,” Mickelson said. “I had to address it. And I’ve been addressing it for a number of years. And for hundreds of hours of therapy. I feel good where I’m at there. My family and I are and have been financially secure for some time.

“Gambling has been part of my life ever since I can remember. But about a decade ago is when I would say it became reckless. It’s embarrassing. I don’t like that people know. The fact is I’ve been dealing with it for some time. Amy [his wife] has been very supportive of it and with me and the process. We’re at a place after many years where I feel comfortable with where that is. It isn’t a threat to me or my financial security. It was just a number of poor decisions.”