Furious Phil Mickelson tells golf reporter: “Get your facts straight”

Phil Mickelson implored a golf journalist to ‘open their eyes’ and ‘get their facts straight’ after he claimed that one of his gripes with the PGA Tour was ‘completely dismissed’ in a report. 

Mickelson took to X on 1 December to blast GOLF’s Dylan Dethier over his recent column dissecting the current state of the men’s game.

Discussing Mickleson’s recent YouTube matches, Dethier wrote:

“While Mickelson’s claims that the Tour is sitting on ‘multiple billions of dollars’ in NFTs may have been aggressive, it’s clear he’s using the freedom of a LIV offseason to play a different type of team golf and potentially unlock some extra value in the process.”

An unhappy Mickelson took issue and replied:

“In this article you dismissed my claim that the Tour is sitting on billions of dollars in NFT’s and digital moments.

“Let me point out that when Ron Price testified in front of of congress he was asked how much assets does the Tour have. He said a little less than three billion.

“Four months later they sold a stake to SSG on a valuation of 12.5 billion.

“Where do you think the 9.5 billion discrepancy came from?

“That’s right, digital moments and NFT’s. Open your eyes and get your facts straight please.”

In 2022, Mickelson was particularly outspoken about the PGA Tour’s control over digital rights and NFTs.

Before LIV Golf officially launched, Mickelson criticised the Tour for having what he called ‘obnoxious greed’ in controlling players’ media and digital rights, including their ability to monetise their own highlights.

In a Golf Digest interview, Mickelson argued that players should own the rights to their personal highlights and performances, rather than the PGA Tour holding exclusive control.

He felt this limited players’ abilities to explore opportunities in emerging markets, like NFTs.

Lefty pointed out that some athletes in other leagues, such as the NBA and NFL, had greater leeway in monetising their own media moments.

Mickelson previously said: “It’s not public knowledge, all that goes on

“But the players don’t have access to their own media. If the Tour wanted to end any threat [from Saudi or anywhere else], they could just hand back the media rights to the players.

“But they would rather throw $25 million here and $40 million there than give back the roughly $20 billion in digital assets they control.

“Or give up access to the $50-plus million they make every year on their own media channel.”