“Phil said, ‘We know they killed Jamal Khashoggi’” - Alan Shipnuck hits back at Phil Mickelson by disclosing his conversation with 6x Major winner
Alan Shipnuck's book "Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar", has caused quite the uproar in the golf community, especially as Shipnuck continues to butt heads with Phil Mickelson over various incidents mentioned in the book. One such incident has now come to light, as Alan Shipnuck mentions direct quotes from Phil Mickelson regarding LIV Golf.
Shipnuck mentioned that Mickelson had called him to speak about what was truly happening behind the scenes of LIV Golf. Following the book's release, Mickelson asked Shipnuck to reveal his sources for the book, claiming that Shipnuck had lied about his quotes. However, Shipnuck refused to identify his sources. Here is an excerpt from his post on X (formerly Twitter):
"During that call Phil famously said, “They’re scary motherfuckers to get involved with. We know they killed [Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it?”"
When the excerpt of the book was released, Mickelson created intense controversy, claiming that the talk they had was off the record. However, Shipnuck claims that Phil Mickelson knew that these phone calls were for the book and that he would be using his quotes.
"He never asked to go off-the-record. If he had, I would have pushed back hard because this was my one chance to interview him for the book. In October ’22, Mickelson made another confounding statement: "So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck.""
Alan Shipnuck calls out Phil Mickelson's lies regarding quotes in his new book
Alan Shipnuck further mentioned that Phil Mickelson cited an individual from the LGTBQIA+ community while in conversation with Shipnuck. On asking Mickelson whether he wanted to protect the identity of the individual by censoring his name, Shipnuck claimed that Phil Mickelson's lawyer confirmed this decision by saying yes.
Shipnuck said that since both of these comments were from the same phone call, Mickelson must have known that these quotes were going on the record. He concluded his tweet by saying:
"Phil can say whatever he wants but that doesn’t make it true. He has lied maliciously about me and I think his current comments should be seen through that lens."
Regardless of the situation, the book about Mickelson has caused quite a bit of controversy and conversation about Lefty's life.