How many OWGR spots did Phil Mickelson drop since joining LIV Golf?
US golfer Phil Mickelson has had an explosive year. He was the biggest name to defect from the PGA Tour to join the controversial LIV Golf series. This big decision was only the start of the controversial spiral that he was thrust into this year.
The Official Golf World Rankings (OWGR) situation was another addition to his woes. Although the LIV Golf series managed to get some big golfers on board, the league hasn't yet been able to secure OWGR points for them.
Since the PGA Tour has banned LIV Golf players from taking part in their events, there are very limited options for these golfers to earn OWGR points. This has resulted in their rankings plummeting dramatically by the day.
Phil Mickelson was no exception to this. The lefty started 2022 ranked 37th, but has now slipped to the 192nd position in the OWGR list, meaning he dropped down a mammoth 155 spots this year.
Mickelson has also struggled with his form a lot this year, though there is no doubt that he is one of the best players in the circuit. However, rankings wise, he has found himself in a freefall, scraping the barrel of the top 200.
The OWGR spots are important for golfers because they determine a player's ability to take part in the major tournaments. Some LIV Golf players find themselves in a better position with exemptions to participate in the majors, having won them in the past.
However, others risk not getting a chance to take part in any major in the coming year.
Phil Mickelson claps back at Tiger Woods' "enormous loan" comment
Golf is currently seeing a civil war like never before. With the inception of the controversial LIV Golf series, the PGA tour has found a rival.
A lot has been spoken about both leagues in the past year. Phil Mickelson was one of the players to openly criticize the PGA Tour. In an interview with biographer Alan Shipnuck, Mickelson said the Tour should be paying its players more instead of stockpiling funds from non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
He said:
"The Tour is sitting on multiple billions of dollars worth of NFTs. They are sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of digital content we could be using for our social media feeds. The players need to own all of that."
Mickelson continued:
"We played those shots, we created those moments, we should be the ones to profit. The Tour doesn’t need that money. They are already sitting on an $800 million cash stockpile."
He added that the funds were going into supporting other leagues that came under the PGA Tour:
"How do you think they’re funding the PIP? Or investing $200 million in the European Tour? The Tour is supposed to be a nonprofit that distributes money to charity. How the f*** is it legal for them to have that much cash on hand?
"The answer is, it’s not. But they always want more and more. They have to control everything. Their ego won’t allow them to make the concessions they need to."
The PGA Tour has made a lot of changes recently, increasing the purses and PIP bonuses for players. At the recently concluded Hero World Challenge, US golfer Tiger Woods was asked whether Phil Mickelson deserved an apology since these monetary changes could be attributed to him.
Woods responded even before the reporter could finish the question. He said that the Tour had to take out an enormous loan to sustain during the pandemic:
"No, absolutely not, no. We took out an enormous loan during the pandemic in which that, if we had another year of the pandemic, our Tour would only be sustained for another year. So we took out an enormous loan.
"It worked, it paid off in our benefit, hence we were able to use that money to make the increases that we’ve made."
Woods' statement contradicted everything Phil Mickelson had said about the PGA Tour's financial status earlier in the year. However, PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan had previously said that the Tour had taken money out of the reserves due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Tour reiterated their position and corrected Woods' statement, saying that they had not taken out a loan during the pandemic. They had instead relied on reserves and mitigating actions, according to Sports Illustrated's Bob Harig.
The PGA Tour clarified today that it did not take out a loan to deal with the pandemic in 2020 as Tiger said during his news conference.. . The Tour used reserves and "mitigating actions'' and would have seen a significant reduction in reserves w/o a return to golf in June 2020
Harig added that the Tour had clarified what Tiger Woods must have actually meant and wrote:
"The Tour also clarified that Tiger might have been referencing the fact that reserves would have dipped below $100m without a return to golf in 2020."
Phil Mickelson took to social media to clap back at Woods' statement. He said:
"Pga tour IRS 990 form from 2018: 1.6 billion in stocks 700 million in cash 1.15 billion in non liquid assets
"This is from the non profit section. The for profit section hasn't been stated since 2012 but was more than the non profit part at that time. This can all be googled"
@KylePorterCBS Pga tour IRS 990 form from 2018
1.6 billion in stocks
700 million in cash
1.15 billion in non liquid assets.
This is from the non profit section. The for profit section hasn’t been stated since 2012 but was more than the non profit part at that time.
This can all be googled
The Tour is yet to respond to Phil Mickelson's latest comments as this civil war continues to get more interesting with each passing day.
Also Read: Poll shows LIV Golf is gaining popularity despite low viewership