Phil Mickelson was labelled "Tiger's bitch" during that phone call

The author who published the comments by Phil Mickelson that sent Lefty into exile has hit back at the claim their conversation was off the record.

Ben Smith

14 Oct 2022

Phil Mickelson was labelled "Tiger's bitch" during *that* phone call

Alan Shipnuck may not have a recording of his memorable phone call with Phil Mickelson about his involvement with LIV Golf, but it does appear he has proof of calling Lefty "Tiger's bitch" during their conversation.

If you aren't aware of what we're talking about as a golf fan, then you may have been living under a bridge since February.

But we'll refresh your memory. This phone call between Shipnuck and Mickelson was so pivotal in the game of pro golf that it set off a chain of events we thought we'd never see.

Antitrust lawsuits. Public feuds. Private feuds. $200m deals. $750m defamation cases. Fines. Suspensions.

Surely you jest.

Mickelson admitted LIV - back then it was known as the Saudi Golf League - was nothing more than a sportswashing exercise.

Lefty called the Saudis "scary mother*******" and condemned the "brutally repressive regime" for their "horrible record on human rights".

"They execute people just for being gay," Mickelson was quoted as saying before confirming he was overlooking these issues purely for leverage against the PGA Tour.

I remember reading those comments for the first time. Anyone would be forgiven for wanting to scratch their eyes.

Did Phil Mickelson really just say that?

Mickelson did. He admitted as much and later apologised for the hurt he had caused. Then he disappeared. For months.

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He's back now. He's still doing Mickelson things, just on a different tour. Just this week, he returned to Saudi Arabia for LIV Golf Jeddah.

It was the first time he had been to the country since those comments were published.

There, he claimed that his conversation with Shipnuck wasn't an interview. He has consistently claimed their conversation was off record.

"So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck," Mickelson said.

Interesting moment from Phil's LIV presser in Saudi Arabia. Asked about his previous comments about Saudi, he answers:
"So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck." pic.twitter.com/fLIrlkyJe5
— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) October 13, 2022

There have been calls for Shipnuck to release the audio from this conversation. None exists.

Shipnuck said he was driving when Mickelson called him, he pulled over and someone else took the wheel.

The author claims he then typed what Mickelson said into his laptop. And apparently he called Mickelson "Tiger's bitch" during their chat.

Shipnuck posted this:

A funny footnote to my interview with Phil: I was driving home from the Wishbone Brawl when he called. Kids had come with me to O’side. I pulled over and made a teen drive so I could focus on the interview. Later learned one kid Snapchat’d this to a friend during the interview. pic.twitter.com/Jw9i5tAC3Y
— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) October 14, 2022

Shipnuck later reacted to Mickelson's claim in Jeddah: "He texted me and said he wanted to talk about the Tour and media rights and NFTs and related issues and [asked if we] could have a conversation. I said yeah, sure.

"I mean, obviously, those are not the sexiest topics. If I made a list of what I wanted to interview Phil about for the book they wouldn't even make the top 10, but he said he didn't want to talk about anything else he just wanted to talk about those things.

"I said, 'Okay, fine'. So he called me up [and] it's a really important point... I'm a biographer working on a book [and] he's asked to speak. Every single thing he says to me is going in the book unless we agree expressly that it's not."

He continued: "And, if he wanted to set some ground rules or go off the record I would have pushed back really hard because this is my one chance to talk to him. But, he never asked to go off the record. He never said this is on background, he never said this is just between me and you or tried to intimate anything like that.

"He just started talking. At that point, this is an on-the-record interview with a biographer."