Phil Mickelson reacts to Rory McIlroy "us and them" comments on LIV Golf

Phil Mickelson expressed his admiration for Rory McIlroy despite his recent comments to the Guardian in which he discussed the divide in professional golf.

Matt Chivers

27 Oct 2022

Phil Mickelson reacts to Rory McIlroy "us and them" comments on LIV Golf

LIV Golf's Phil Mickelson revealed his respect and admiration for Rory McIlroy off the back of his win at the CJ Cup and his recent comments regarding the new league and the PGA Tour.

Speaking at the season-ending Team Championship in Miami, Mickelson was impressed by the Northern Irishman's defence of the trophy he won in Nevada 12 months ago.

Lefty, 52, declined to go into McIlroy's words to the Guardian. McIlroy expressed regret about the "us and them" state of affairs between the LIV Golf Tour and the PGA Tour.

He also said he felt betrayed by the likes of Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell, two of the handful of European stalwarts who made the switch which could end all future involvement in the Ryder Cup.

Mickelson preferred to focus on the $50 million finale to the Saudi-backed series' inaugural season in 2022. It is being played at Trump National Doral on the Blue Monster course.

Here is the back and forth between Koepka and Mickelson at the press conference today.
“That’s a beautiful green shirt do you have a green jacket?” pic.twitter.com/OshHMfHCaq
— LIV Golf Latest (@LIVGolfLatest) October 26, 2022

"I think a lot of Rory. I really have the utmost respect for him, and I look at what he's done in the game and how he's played this year and his win last week and No.1 in the world now, and I have a ton of respect for him," Mickelson said.

"We'll have three months off after this event to talk about things like that and so forth, but this week something is happening that I don't want to deflect focus on, which is we've never had a team event like this in professional golf.

"We've never had this type of match play opportunity where the number of matches, the number of players continue to stay the same Friday and Saturday, where there's enough interest and stuff going on for fans to come out and watch and be interested in, television and what have you.

"I don't want to take away from that. We can talk about your questions afterwards, but this is a unique thing happening in professional golf, and it's pretty exciting."

It was reported that Mickelson received a round of applause after a statement he made about the progress of LIV Golf over the last six or seven months.

At the beginning of the statement, the six-time major champion admitted "maybe I shouldn't have said stuff like that" when he judged the PGA Tour to be on a downwards trend at the Jeddah Invitational.