Sports Illustrated Golf Writer Bob Harig joined Dukes & Bell Wednesday from London (the site of LIV Golf’s first event) and shared the details of his exclusive interview with Phil Mickelson ahead of his announcement he was joining LIV Golf. Harig detailed how the conversation went down and what he learned about Lefty’s gambling issues.
“I was on my way here (London) actually, and was flying through Detroit to come here on Monday and I had a two-hour layover, and while I was on the plane I got a text saying (Phil) was going to talk to me at 5’oclock.
I was landing at 4:45 and my flight was at 6:40. I had this small twenty-minute window to talk to him. There were no stipulations to the interview, but they wanted it to be a Q & A. In other words, what they didn’t want me to do was write a story and seize on one thing. He wanted to talk about all the questions I had and have it all in there. I talked to him for about twenty minutes and as you read he answered every question I had.”
Harig went on to describe how Phil detailed his gambling issues and his choice to join LIVE.
“The gambling was a surprise. I wasn’t sure if he was going to take a question on that, and not only did he take it, but he went with it and admitted he used to have a big problem. Probably that was my biggest take away from that. I’m glad he did the interview and he couldn’t have been better about that. And he was fine dealing with the uncomfortable stuff that had to come up.”