Spilling the beans over debt, gambling

Los Angeles – US federal auditors probing Phil Mickelson’s role in an insider trading case found he had gambling losses of more than $40 million (about R639 million) from 2010 to 2014, according to an excerpt from Alan Shipnuck’s forthcoming biography of the US golfer.

Shipnuck posted the excerpt from the unauthorised biography on the Firepit Collective website on Thursday.

The book, Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar, is due to be released on 17 May.

That’s two days before the start of the PGA Championship, where Mickelson is the defending champion.

Mickelson became the oldest major winner in golf history when he won the PGA at Kiawah Island last year at the age of 50, but it’s not yet known if he will defend the title at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Mickelson, pictured, has not played since an uproar in February followed Shipnuck’s publication of the player’s explosive remarks concerning the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour spearheaded by Greg Norman.

The six-time major champion called the Saudi partners “scary”, citing the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. –