Has Phil Mickelson Become a Nobody In LIV Golf Decisions? Former Kingpin’s Testimonial Sheds Stark Reality

The PGA Tour-PIF merger continues to haunt some of Golf’s sharpest minds. But Phil Mickelson is not one such golfer, despite his seniority. Ever since switching to LIV Golf and enduring a winless drought, the 53-year-old’s involvement in high-level matters, like the $3 billion merger, has been fading exponentially. His recent misfortune at the Masters just added to his misery as he finished at T43 with a total score of 8-over-par, a severe fall from his last year’s runner-up finish just 4 strokes behind the lead, Jon Rahm.

While many players, like the former year’s Masters winner Jon Rahm, have expressed that a decision on the merger might be sooner than expected, Phil Mickelson continues to stay in a darkness-filled cloud away from the top-level conversations. One such conversation recently held was between Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Jay Monahan, Tiger Woods, and the rest of the Players Advisor Council in the Bahamas. But what is it that Mickelson knows of it?

Phil Mickelson’s take on the immediate possible future of LIV Golf and the PGA Tour

The six-time major winner has long been openly involved in the dealings of the new golf world order. Known for his outspokenness, his critique of Jay Monahan and admiration for the breakaway league have been making the rounds in the golf world for some time now.

But things seem to be different this time around for the former Kingpin. When asked what he thinks of the status of the long, impending merger between the two poles of the golf world, he said, “Others are handling that. I’m not involved. Others are taking care of that.

This comes as a shock to many, considering the huge gap in the involvement of a player like Mickelson in issues of such deep relevance. A few weeks prior, Mickelson openly criticized Jay Monahan for his mishandling of the LIV Golf situation in the early days of the Greg Norman-led league’s setup by reposting an article on X that referred to the PGA Tour Commissioner’s initial stance as rooted in “moral high ground” and as a “temporary self-serving position.”

The piece that Mickelson seemed to have supported, judged from his rampant repost of it, claimed, “There was never a concern over the source of the money, this fight was always purely about maintaining a monopoly and trying to prevent the power shift at the top of the sport from moving east. Hopefully, everyone can see that clearly now.”

After being so bluntly involved in the matters of the two leagues, Mickelson being sidelined comes as a shock to many of us. His recent cryptic statement is a testament to his reduced importance in the ranks of the Saudi-backed conglomerate. But what did Jon Rahm have to say about the impending merger?

Jon Rahm’s much more ‘informed’ opinion of the future of the $3 billion merger

As opposed to an uninvolved Mickelson, the Legion XIII captain gave hope regarding the merger by hinting that they might “be closer than ever” to a final decision. The 2023 Masters Champion also talked about how the recently held Bahamas meeting involved some decisions that had never taken place before.

When asked if the Spaniard thinks his unexpected defection added to the ongoing air of unification, Rahm added,

“I think I could be the start of a tipping point, yeah. I understood the weight that that decision could have and the impact it could have. That’s why it wasn’t such an easy decision.” While Mickelson remains focused on the fact that others are handling it, Rahm’s apparent nod in the direction of a closer than-ever-before decision has given a glimmer of hope to proponents of unification.