Golf Corridor of Famer Phil Mickelson
Based on the upcoming guide Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colourful Famous person by Alan Shipnuck, Mickelson admitted the growing Saudi Golf League was “sportwashing” to make a repressive regime extra palatable.
“They’re scary motherf**krs to get involved with,” Mickelson advised Shipnuck, who on Thursday posted an excerpt from guide.
“We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” Mickelson stated. “They execute people over there for being gay.”
So why would Mickelson work with the Saudis?
“Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates,” he advised Shipnuck in an interview which occurred in November. “The Tour likes to pretend it’s a democracy, but it’s really a dictatorship. They divide and conquer.”
Michelson stated he and different gamers have paid attorneys to assemble the proposed league’s working settlement. He’s sad about what he considers the PGA Tour’s greed and its management of gamers’ media rights, together with the truth that gamers are unable to profit from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of their on-course moments.
“[The PGA Tour] has been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse,” Mickelson stated. ”…And the Saudi cash has lastly given us that leverage.”
Organizers of the Saudi-backed league, which shall be a part of the Asian Tour, declare they’ve commitments from 20 gamers to take part. They intend to announce their plan subsequent month in the course of the PGA’s flagship Gamers Championship occasion, per Shipnuck.
The deliberate new circuit will reportedly be funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, estimated to be value some $500 billion.
When contacted by ESPN, the PGA refused to touch upon Mickelson’s interview.
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