It has not been a good week for Phil Mickelson or the Saudi-backed Super Golf League.
Mickelson issued an apology for comments he made in an interview with golf journalist Alan Shipnuck and has hinted that he will be taking a break from the game.
The American admitted he joined forces with the proposed league to gain leverage over the PGA Tour and described the Saudi Arabia regime as “scary”.
Rory McIlroy criticised Mickelson for admitting he was using the Super Golf League as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”
Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau both pledged their allegiance to the PGA Tour, prompting McIlroy to declare the SGL as “dead in the water”.
Johnson had been expected to be part of the SGL having played in all four Saudi International events to date and DeChambeau was reportedly also going to be one of the big names involved.
Their decision to remain with the PGA Tour will have given Greg Norman, who fronts the SGL, plenty to think about.
Where do they go from here? Can they attract enough big names to make a viable alternative to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour?
Phil Mickelson regrets ‘reckless’ Saudi comments and hints at break from golf
I always thought if the best young players, such as Jon Rahm, signed up to the SGL then that would make things very difficult but they all appear to have rejected it.
It makes the players who have entertained the idea, such as Mickelson, look a bit foolish.
No one really knows if it is going to go ahead now.
It also vindicates the decision for the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour to form an alliance. It looks like a strong move that has worked.
The PGA Tour will have been working hard behind the scenes to come up with incentives to encourage the players to turn down the offer of the SGL.
One option may be to restructure the prize money on offer to give an even greater share to the players who finish at the top of the leaderboard.
It would have been terrible for golf if there had been a split. The fans want to see all of the best players competing. They don’t want a third of the best players competing at different times.
I think this is the best outcome for golf.
When the top golfers were growing up they weren’t dreaming of making $20million for playing golf in Saudi Arabia, they were dreaming of winning majors.
You can understand why it would be appealing to a player such as Mickelson, at this stage of his career, to be interested in the Super Golf League.
But I find his comments strange, especially when you consider what he has gained from his career in golf, which is probably why Rory has been so critical.
Rory has been very vocal from the start and said from day one that he wouldn’t be leaving.
He is the chairman of the PGA Tour’s player advisory board so he will feel passionate about protecting the tour.
One thing that will be interesting is to see what impact this will have on the European Ryder Cup captaincy.
Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood were among those tipped to join the Super Golf League, which would have taken them out of the running for the Ryder Cup captaincy.
That made Luke Donald appear the favourite to succeed Padraig Harrington, although I thought Paul Lawrie had a good chance. I would love Paul to get the captaincy.
If the Super Golf League isn’t going ahead then it will change things and Stenson could be the overwhelming favourite.
Normally the European Ryder Cup captain has been selected by now so it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks.
Niemann impresses at Genesis
I was very impressed by Chile’s Joaquin Niemann who claimed a wire-to-wire win at the Genesis Invitational in California.
The 23-year-old finished two shots ahead of Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young on 19 under.
It was a very strong field but Joaquin was a worthy winner.
Players from outside the U.S. to win wire-to-wire before age 24 since 1960:
Rory McIlroy: 2011 U.S. Open
Joaquin Niemann: 2022 @TheGenesisInv pic.twitter.com/mPq7OLOwvr— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 21, 2022
He was the number one amateur golfer in the world and a lot has been expected of him.
Jon Rahm was also the top amateur and he made a very quick transition to the pro game.
It seems if you make it to number one amateur in the world you are almost up there with the top professional players in the world.
His short game around the greens was very impressive. He has a great feel for those delicate chip shots from the fringes of the green and was opting to chip a few times when most players would have putted.
Robert MacIntyre also had a good week.
He looked on course for a top-10 finish but eventually had to settle for tied 15th which was a good week’s work.
Spieth set for Scottish Open
It’s great to see that Jordan Spieth has added the Genesis Scottish Open at Renaissance to his schedule.
The former Open champion will be teeing up in the event for the first time.
Collin Morikawa is also playing this year’s event. He teed up last year on his way to winning the Open at Royal St George’s the following week.
I’m expecting a very strong field at Renaissance.
The 150th Open at St Andrews is the main event on the golfing calendar this year and every top player will want to perform well that week.
They will be looking at the best way to get ready for St Andrews and I think a lot of them will opt for playing the Scottish Open the week before, especially after what Morikawa did last year.
It is going to be a fortnight of fantastic golf in Scotland.
