Mickelson shunned by major sponsors

THE spectacular downfall of Phil Mickelson was rendered all but complete yesterday as his two major sponsors Callaway and Workday joined other benefactors in dropping the pariah lefty.

Mickelson has been the public face of Callaway since 2004 but no longer, after the club manufacturer announced they were ‘pausing’ their relationship, while Workday joined KPMG and Amstel Light in severing their ties completely.

The American made an estimated $50million in sponsorship earnings last year, and the vast majority of that will have been down to the largesse of those four companies. The 51-yearold ought to be enjoying a lap of honour after becoming the oldest golfer in history to win a major at the USPGA Championship last May but he is now an outcast, shunned by sponsors and players as the fallout continues from his appalling interview for a biography and subsequent mealymouthed apology.

Mickelson (above) admitted in the interview he had colluded with the Saudis to set up a rival circuit to the PGA Tour, which went down like a lead balloon in the locker room.

He then added that he was only colluding for leverage against the tour, calling the Saudis ‘scary mother ***** s.’ He couldn’t even get the tone of the apology right, claiming that the game that’s the apple of the eye of corporate America ‘was in desperate need of change’. He then blamed the biographer Alan Shipnuck for his Saudi comments, saying they were ‘out of context’ and ‘off the record’, two claims that were believed by absolutely nobody.

All that’s left to complete this hubristic tale is a suspension from the PGA Tour, which ought to be a formality given his admittance of conspiring against the hand that has generously fed him. That actually might be in place already, given one thing the tour do get wrong is they don’t publicly reveal such sanctions.

Mickelson has not been seen on tour since late January and will not be at the Arnold Palmer Invitational event this week.

In his apology, Mickelson said he desperately needed ‘time away from the game’ — but people will draw their own conclusions if he’s still missing this time next month.