He may not be teeing it up at Southern Hills this week to defend his title, but Phil Mickelson is still creating plenty of buzz ahead of the second major of the year.

• Related: Major champ shares wild Phil Mickelson gambling story from Presidents Cup

This week, the 2002 PGA Champion Rich Beem has revealed that he wants nothing to do with Alan Shipnuck, author of the just-released unauthorised biography of Phil Mickelson.

• Related: Biographer claims this is the shock real reason why Mickelson and caddie Bones split

In an interview with BoyleSports Golf Betting and GolfMagic, the now Sky Sports analyst revealed he had “enough of the sensationalism” of how the writer approached his work on the 2021 book, ‘Bud, Sweat & Tees’, a publication featuring ‘Rich Beem’s Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour’.

In the book, Shipnuck covered Beem’s rookie year alongside caddie Steve Duplantis, but the 51-year-old says that, “Even though he wrote that book, just so you know, you and I got paid the same amount for that book. After he wrote the book, we remained fairly friendly and then it got to the point where I’d had enough of the sensationalism of how he wrote it.”

Explaining why he is “not a fan,” of the author, Beem said, “I don’t trust him and if I don’t trust you, then I don’t really want to have anything to do with you. I think the one thing I base my friendships on and on who I want to talk to is ‘do I trust them?’ I don’t trust Alan. It’s nothing personal, I just don’t trust what he writes.”

“I think that he tries to sensationalist everything, but that’s just my personal opinion. Some folks love what he has to say, so it’s all good.”

In previously released excerpts from Shipnuck’s latest publication, ‘Phil. The Rip-roaring (unauthorized) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar’, the 2021 PGA winner created huge controversy as he revealed his thoughts on Saudi Arabia, the planned golf league and the effect on the PGA Tour. Since then, Mickelson has been in exile, entering this week’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills, before pulling out just a few days ago.

In the interview, Beem expressed his surprise that Mickelson took so long to withdraw from the second major of the year and hopes that he doesn’t commit to the first LIV event at the Centurion Club in two weeks’ time.

“I was surprised he (Mickelson) was even on the list. I was surprised it got as close as it did. If you look at everything surrounding Phil, and especially with that book coming out, I think that’s a pretty damning book and I think that anybody wouldn’t want to be around.” Beem said.

Bookmakers’ directory, Bookmakers.com, has recently revealed a list of the most trolled professional golfers on social media – with some surprising results.

• Related: Golf fans left stunned by price of beer and water at PGA Championship

With the PiP having encouraged even more social media interaction, it’s of little surprise that some of the biggest names have been victims of online abuse, with the site calculating the amount of positive versus negative posts received.

• Related: Major champ shares wild Phil Mickelson gambling story from Presidents Cup

Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, all within the world’s top-10 ranked players, are quoted as receiving large amounts of trolling, but after a year of online spats (particularly with Bryson DeChambeau) Brooks Koepka is reported to have received around 77,500 positive comments and 18,000 negative remarks.

Those figures, however, put the four-time major champion in second place behind current world number two, Jon Rahm, who is said to be ‘the most-trolled player, with almost 20,000 negative posts compared to just over 30,000 positive ones.’

On a happier note, world number 20 and two-time PGA Tour winner Sungjae Im is said to have a ratio of around 15:1, his 3000 positive comments received far outweighing the 200 negative.

More from the 19th Hole

• 86-year-old Gary Player shows off remarkable club head and ball speed numbers
• ‘Absolutely disgusting’ – LPGA pro blasts Augusta National for its role in major venue change
• ‘Get it out of my face, man!’ – Brooks Koepka snatches phone from fan during tense exchange

A few weeks ago, an excerpt from Alan Shipnuck’s new book titled: “PHIL: The Rip-Roaring (Unauthorized) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar” was released.

• Related: The rumored real reason why Phil Mickelson withdrew from the PGA Championship

Many were shocked to learn that Mickelson reportedly lost $40 million from gambling throughout the prime years of his career, according to Shipnuck.

• Related: Phil Mickelson’s latest Twitter activity suggests he’s not happy that he was ‘canceled’

Ahead of next week’s release of the book, the author has released an excerpt to  The Times of London which discusses how gambling affected Lefty during the course of his career.

The article shockingly states that Mickelson “more concerned” with checking the box scores and “covering the spread” while he was playing in tournaments.

Steve Flesch, who was paired with Mickelson on a Sunday during the Hyundai Team Matches, told Shipnuck that every hole Mickelson “was checking like a beeper or something.”

“He could not have cared any less about what we were doing on the golf course. He was definitely more concerned about who was winning the football games and who was covering the spread.”

Tom Lehman also had a similar story for the book. He told Shipnuck that Mickelson was checking scores football during the Presidents Cup in 2000.

The United States won the Presidents Cup handedly that year, but Mickelson had little to do with it.

Lehman was paired with Phil and their opponents were Mike Weir and Steve Elkington.

The 63-year-old told Shipnuck: “Phil is hitting it everywhere — he’s barely finished a hole through the first eight holes. He keeps saying, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll show up eventually.’

“On the ninth hole he buries it in the front bunker and is out of the hole again. He walks way back into the trees and is sitting on a stump with his back to everybody and his head down.

“I think he’s giving himself a pep talk, so I go over there to try to make him feel better and he’s got his phone out and he’s checking the football scores.”

Mickelson’s downward spiral since he made comments about the PGA Tour’s “obnoxious greed” has been fast and furious. His withdrawal from this week’s PGA Championship is more evidence that all of the bad publicity is having a severe impact on the 51-year-old.

More from the 19th Hole

• 86-year-old Gary Player shows off remarkable club head and ball speed numbers
• ‘Absolutely disgusting’ – LPGA pro blasts Augusta National for its role in major venue change
• ‘Get it out of my face, man!’ – Brooks Koepka snatches phone from fan during tense exchange