Why Phil Mickelson was told not to attend the champions dinner at the Open by the R&A last time it was held at St Andrews

The Open Championship will return to St. Andrews in 2027 after the R&A decided to continue the tradition of hosting the event at the Old Course every five years.

The tournament in two years will be the 31st time The Open has been held at golf’s ancestral home. St Andrews last hosted The Open in 2022 when Cameron Smith clinched a one-shot victory.

Smith’s win at the Old Course came amid a turbulent time for professional golf. LIV Golf’s emergence saw a divided sport head to St Andrews. Smith himself signed for the PIF-backed venture just weeks after lifting the Claret Jug.

One-time Open winner Phil Mickelson was another who headed to St Andrews shrouded in controversy. The lefty, who had signed for LIV, was arguably golf’s most polarising figure at the time.

What the R&A said to Phil Mickelson before the 2022 Open Championship

The R&A, eager to avoid any problematic situations, contacted the six-time major winner before the 2022 Open and advised him not to attend any of the champions’ events at the start of the week.

The R&A contacted me a couple weeks before and said, look, we don’t think it’s a great idea you go, but if you want to, you can. I just didn’t want to make a big deal about it, so I said fine. We both kind of agreed that it would be best if I didn’t,” Mickelson said in his pre-tournament press conference.

The lefty, however, didn’t let his absence from the pre-tournament arrangements ruin his week.

“I love being here. Everybody here loves golf, and we find this place to be very spiritual. As great as this game has been to me, to be able to come here to the home and compete again — I think this is my sixth one here,” Mickelson added.

“I’ve had some great moments here. I don’t know if you guys remember the Dunhill Cup, but I ended up being a part of the winning Dunhill Cup in ’96 with Steve Stricker and Mark O’Meara. And we had all these rounds and different weather conditions. It was really special to play here in all the different conditions.”