Phil Mickelson during a practice round prior to the PIF Saudi International at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on Feb. 2, 2022 in Al Murooj, Saudi Arabia.Oisin Keniry/Getty Images
Phil Mickelson just ripped the PGA Tour for what he called “obnoxious greed.”
Now that – pardon the expression – is rich.
“I know I will be criticized,” Mickelson said earlier this week, soon after arriving in the golf-forsaken Saudi Arabian metropolis of King Abdullah Economic City – you cannot make this stuff up – to play in the Saudi International.
“That’s not my concern,” Mickelson added in an interview with Golf Digest. “All that would do is dumb down one of the most intricate issues in sport.”
Actually, it’s not that intricate. It’s just another attempt at a cash grab. If you remember the mercifully brief crash-and-burn experiment run by a handful of top European soccer teams to create a breakaway league and keep the lion’s share of the receipts last spring, you’re pretty much up to speed.
In this instance, though, it’s former golfer Greg Norman trying to establish an Asian Tour to rival the PGA Tour after bombing with the same concept nearly 20 years ago. This time, though, Norman has pumped $300 million into the venture through his LIV Golf Investments, which in turn is funded primarily by the Saudis’ sovereign wealth fund. And the sheiks willing to dole out the money are a lot less interested in golf than they are in cleaning up their image as routinely ruthless violators of human rights.
We’ll get to exactly what got Phil’s dander up in a moment (but here’s a hint: money, money, money and more money). Just know that Lefty’s net worth is at least $800 million as you read this, and climbing.
He pilots his own jet, owns a Bentley, an Aston Martin, a mansion in California with a three-hole putting course and is building an even bigger mansion in Florida, apparently to avoid paying state income tax. The only guys splattered with more logos when they get dressed are either walking a runway during Fashion Week in Milan or sitting behind the wheel at a NASCAR race.
But what if the PGA Tour didn’t exist when Mickelson joined in 1992, and just as important, Tiger Woods didn’t show up four years after that? Well, it might be a very different story.
Mickelson might still be playing in front of relatives and not many more souls than wandered the fairways during his college days at Arizona State. He’d be thrilled just to nab the exit-row seat on a long commercial flight and own even one Rolex, let alone the drawerful he has stashed at home (next to a bag of cash) for endorsing the brand.
Instead, it was the flush Phil who soon after his arrival in Saudi Arabia pocketed an appearance fee that once would have qualified as a “king’s ransom” but could be more accurately described these days as a “sultan’s bribe.” And almost everything you really need to know about the Saudi International tournament can be explained in two sentences:
No. 1, it’s being played on a course that looks like it was plopped down next to a shopping mall parking lot in Phoenix; and No. 2, Mickelson wasn’t the only PGA Tour pro who skipped the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and flew halfway around the world with a guarantee – no matter what they shot – to fly back home a lot richer.
Lefty opened with a 67 in Saudi, added a 69 and through two rounds was tied for 14th. Considering he beat only five players at Kapalua, didn’t break par on easy courses in the California desert and missed another cut at Torrey Pines, this would be progress.
Of course, Mickelson might have been distracted in those three events to start the year, steamed about the PGA Tour controlling the players’ media rights, an asset he valued at $20 billion without providing how he came up with that number.
If nothing else, he contended just the threat of top players defecting to a rival league would give them more leverage to bargain.
But what about those sublime golf skills Mickelson spent a lifetime honing? Shouldn’t that be leverage enough?
Without the PGA Tour, sure, those would be great for taking $100 bills off his pals every weekend down at the local country club. And good as Mickelson is, he probably could have taken his hustle on the road like old-timers Lee Trevino and Raymond Floyd. Both pocketed plenty of money playing in winner-take-all matches at private clubs, but neither saw a paycheque with six figures on it until they took their talents out on the PGA Tour.
Now, it takes almost that much just to fuel up the jet. Mickelson got that much, and much more, to spend a few days in the desert chasing a ball with a stick because guys like Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and above all, Woods, built a PGA Tour that made it possible.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
