Phil Mickelson's extended absence from competitive golf will end this week. The six-time major champion officially signed with the new LIV Golf series on Monday, and announced that he'll participate in its inaugural event this week at Centurion Club outside of London. Mickelson hasn't played professionally in four months, as he faced widespread backlash for contentious comments about the new Saudi-backed league and how the PGA Tour operates.
The veteran lefty skipped The Masters and PGA Championship this spring, in order to stay out of the spotlight, and became the first golfer not to defend a major since Rory McIlroy in 2015. The PGA Tour now rivals the LIV Golf series, and last week, the PGA Tour threatened "disciplinary action" for the members who play in LIV Golf events. Interestingly enough, the USGA said on Tuesday that Mickelson and Dustin Johnson can play in the upcoming U.S. Open.
"The PGA Tour is the week-to-week stuff you see on TV. The PGA of America controls the PGA Championship. It's two different bodies and organizations," Golfweek writer David Dusek told Maggie and Perloff on Tuesday. "The major championships -- Masters, British and U.S. Opens, PGA Championship -- are run by those organizations. They're technically not PGA Tour events and that is where this gets real weird... They may just play the majors, LIV Golf stuff...
"[Phil's] ego is so big, and so many things have come out about him and how he tried to use the LIV Tour as leverage against the PGA Tour -- to get them to change. He wanted more control, and all that stuff came out... He's in London right now. He's just saying, to hell with it, going all-in on this. It's fascinating to see a player -- who's been one of the faces of the PGA Tour, American golf -- basically selling out and taking the money... It's wild. It's really, really wild."
The entire golf conversation between Dusek and Maggie and Perloff can be accessed in the audio player above (interview begins at 4:06 p.m. ET mark).
You can follow the Maggie and Perloff Show on Twitter @MaggieandPerl and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.