19th Hole

Major champ shares wild Phil Mickelson gambling story from Presidents Cup

Published

2 years ago

May 16, 2022

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.

PGA Tour pro takes to social media during round after being left unhappy with ruling

Published

2 hours ago

May 13, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

During the of the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic on the PGA Tour, Alejandro Tosti found himself in a precarious position around a bunker on the 7th hole on Sunday.

The Argentine was well out of contention, but when he approached his ball, he found it was wedged into the lip of the bunker. Feeling as though the ball was embedded, Tosti called over a rules official.

To his surprise, his request for relief for the embedded ball was denied.

Tosti took to his social media to post a video of the situation that he was able to record during the actual round!

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this. Alejandro Tosti got a ruling about an embedded ball he didn’t like yesterday in Myrtle Beach. He took out his phone and recorded the situation and lie
I’m not good with rules, but it looks like he has a point to me, it looks outside of bunker. pic.twitter.com/6ycXiAWMEp

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) May 12, 2024

The video was found on Tosti’s Instagram by Ryan French of “Monday Q Info” on X.

Tosti was able to salvage a bogey on the hole, but shot a final round 74 (+3) to finish in a tie for 63rd.

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19th Hole

Swing coach reveals why he recently told Brooks Koepka to ‘stop whinging’

Published

2 hours ago

May 13, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

At last month’s Masters Tournament, Brooks Koepka put forth a disappointing performance by his lofty standards.

The five-time major champion finished T45 a year after contending deep into Sunday of the 2023 Masters.

After the letdown, Koepka went to swing coach Pete Cowen, who he’s worked with for a decade, to ger him back on track.

Cowen spoke with The Telegraph, revealing what he said to the reigning PGA Champion.

“I gave him one of my old-fashioned b******ings when he was moaning to me about his putting. I told him to stop whinging and to just get to work on the issue. Again, that’s the sort of thing that triggers him. I gave him a b******ing before he won his first Major (the US Open) seven years ago.”

“He’s put in the hours and turned it around on the greens since then and with Valhalla being a big boys’ course, I can see him, at the very least, contending. If he wins, he’ll join (Sir Nick) Faldo and (Phil) Mickelson on six Majors and at his age that would be exciting. They’d probably still go on under-rating him, though.”

After the pep talk from Cowen, Koepka went on to win LIV Singapore.

As we enter the PGA Championship, three of the best players in the world, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka will all be coming off a victory in their previous start.

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19th Hole

Brandel Chamblee has a surprising new take on the PGA Tour-LIV stand-off

Published

3 days ago

May 10, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

One of the more outspoken analysts throughout the LIV Golf vs. PGA Tour saga has been Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee.

This week, Chamblee reversed course, saying he believes the PGA Tour should strike a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF).

Golf Channel Brandel Chamblee in his biggest about-face since the Framework Agreement on June 6, now says that making a deal with the PIF "is the better end of the bargain."

He says:

"The PGA Tour is in this pickle like it or not, but, do you want to compete with someone (LIV… pic.twitter.com/XDZaC1I6B8

— JCAGOLFReport (@JCAGOLFReport) May 10, 2024

“The PGA Tour is in this pickle like it or not, but, do you want to compete with someone who’s not going to go away, who can outspend you”.

“Every move they make that makes their tour better deletes your tour and causes more division within the tour. So the time is now, to Rory’s point about making a deal, I wouldn’t have said that a year ago… but it is the better end of the bargain.”

Chamblee’s new stance seems to be in line with that of Rory McIlroy, who reportedly wanted to rejoin the PGA Tour board with hopes of pushing a deal with the PIF closer to the finish line.

Chamblee will be in the booth for next week’s PGA Championship which has 16 LIV players in the field.