LIV Golf's Phil Mickelson SHADES USGA CEO and PGA Tour commissioner

Phil Mickelson has shaded both the USGA CEO and PGA Tour commissioner in multiple tweets Thursday.

04 May 2023

LIV Golf's Phil Mickelson had an active Thursday on Twitter as he took shots at both USGA CEO Mike Whan and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in multiple tweets over the U.S. Open exemption criteria.

Mickelson, who's been a member of LIV Golf since its inaugural event in June 2022, has claimed that the two bosses are working together against LIV Golf players, specifically Talor Gooch.

The 52-year-old started sharing his thoughts in response to Gooch learning last month that he was no longer exempt for the U.S. Open in mid-June.

Gooch, LIV Golf's first back-to-back winner with victories in Adelaide and Singapore, said on the 73rd Hole podcast that the USGA had retroactively changed their exemption criteria for the major championship in a way that only affected him.

He said they changed the specifications from qualifying for the Tour Championship, to both qualifying and being eligible for it.

Gooch had qualified for last season's PGA Tour finale, but he was not eligible since he'd joined LIV Golf.

The USGA reportedly denied Gooch's accusation, saying it was not a retroactive change.

On Wednesday, Mickelson took to Twitter to defend his fellow LIV Golf member. Replying to a previous tweet from another account, he wrote:

"Mike Whan recently changed the wording from “qualified”for the Tour championship to “eligible.” Thereby taking away Gooch’s exemption since he wasn’t eligible to play even though he had qualified.This doesn’t make the US open better in any way but does help collude with the Tour"

But it didn't end there. On Thursday, Mickelson expanded on his thoughts.

The Sports Illustrated Golf account posted a link to an article they'd written on Whan, a member of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) board, on its process. Along with the article link, they wrote:

"'We’re not just rushing to figure this out.' The CEO of the USGA defended the OWGR’s process for handling LIV Golf."

That sparked Mickelson's second defence of Gooch. He replied:

"Whan needs JM and Tour support for new ball roll back. It fails without it. Whan colludes with Tour to keep Gooch out of Open and delay LIV getting owgr points. Tour players don’t want ball roll back so now JM must sway players to implement it. Interesting times"

He later responded to another tweet in the thread:

When the investigation into all of this concludes, everything I’m saying will be proven. It’s why no one is denying any of it either. It’ll take time but it will all come out.
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) May 4, 2023

A separate thread underneath Mickelson's first tweet in response to the article developed, with an account saying Mickelson's Gooch theory was "nonsense."

But Mickelson stood his ground, adding:

"He qualified and Whan change the criteria retroactively. That’s just the facts. The masters and R&A also made those changes but not retroactively. It starts next year and he played in masters and will play in the British Open."

When asked why he thought they'd specifically singled Gooch out, this was Mickelson's theory:

"I don’t like mixing what I know to be facts with speculation. Why Whan singled out Gooch is speculation. My theory is it was a way to flex his muscle and help JM show his players the power he has to keep them out of majors. Gooch is the only one it applied to."

The discussion continued:

In the future, you can no longer qualify for Tour championship,(which gets you in all the majors)leave for LIV and be able to play in majors via this qualifying criteria. All majors made this change for 2024. Whan did it retroactively this year which excludes Gooch.
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) May 4, 2023

The next major championship - and meeting of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf - is the PGA Championship in Rochester, New York a few weeks from now. Both Mickelson and Gooch are in the field.

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