Mickelson’s $40m in gambling losses
To all those questioning why Phil Mickelson could possibly need the riches being dangled by the Saudi Arabian rebel circuit, perhaps the latest excerpt released from his forthcoming biography will provide an explanation.
It is claimed Mickelson sustained gambling losses totalling more than $40million between 2010 and 2014.
This was disclosed as part of Mickelson’s legal fallout from an insider-trading case with Billy Walters, the Las Vegas high-roller, in which the golfer was named by the
FBI and was forced to repay approximately $1million from a shares transaction.
Author Alan Shipnuck published a passage from Phil: The Rip-roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar, which is due to be released on May 17, two days before the first round of the USPGA, in which he quotes a source with access to the documents drawn up by government auditors following a forensic examination of Mickelson’s finances.
Although Mickelson, 51, earned roughly $40million in each of those years, Shipnuck estimates that after taxes, other expenses and a luxury lifestyle – including buying a dinosaur’s skull as a birthday present – he would have been left with $10million, meaning he “broke even or worse” over that period after taking into account his gambling.
Mickelson has been on indefinite leave from golf for almost three months since the initial furore broke over material in Shipnuck’s account.
Mickelson declared that the Saudis were “scary motherf-----s to be involved with” and referenced their “horrid human rights record”. But he figured that he could overlook all this because “it provides a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates”.
Greg Norman, the Australian entrusted with overseeing the Saudi attempt to revolutionise the professional men’s game, later told Telegraph Sport that Mickelson’s comments and the resulting outrage derailed what had been the imminent launch of the breakaway league, but the plans were quickly redrawn and the $255 million eightevent LIV Golf Invitational Series will begin in St Albans next month.
Mickelson has applied to the PGA Tour for a release to play in the tournament at the Centurion Club and will learn on Monday if he has been successful, as will others, such as Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter.
Westwood is playing in the Betfred British Masters, which began at the Belfry yesterday. The former world No1 bogeyed his last two holes in a level-par 72 that left him six off the first-round pace set by Dane Thorbjorn Olesen and Kiwi Ryan Fox.
At the Wells Fargo Championship in Maryland, Rory Mcilroy shot a three-under 67 in his first start since finishing second in last month’s Masters.