At 53 years old, you’ll either find athletes relaxing with their money, or running around after filing for bankruptcy. For golfers, that shelf life is a little higher, but you don’t expect a 50-over professional to top the money charts at the twilight of their career.

Enter Phil Mickelson, though. The six-time major championship winner made significant leaps in Forbes’ illustrious list of the highest-paid athletes last year. While a contract at the LIV Golf Series has helped significantly, it has also allowed the veteran to dwindle down as he watches the sun set on his career. Yet, just like his lifelong nemesis Tiger Woods, Mickelson seems to have been tricked, at the hands of his own tour.

Is Phil Mickelson duped of a full schedule at 53?

While a nine-figure, guaranteed sum would have certainly played a part in his decision, Mickelson would have relished the opportunity to play a reduced number of games in the LIV Golf Series. Indeed, the breakaway league consisted of seven events last year, which helped the golfer spend time with his dear ones more frequently.

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However, the dawn of the new season has left the 45-time PGA TOUR winner on the road more often than not. Since LIV Golf’s inaugural London event in June last year, Mickelson has participated in 18 events, including three major championships.

Furthermore, the 53-year-old won’t have time to breathe in the upcoming month as he visits the iconic Valderrama course for LIV Golf’s upcoming event. The trip to Spain will be followed by a stop at London the subsequent week before Mickelson begins his preparations for the final major of the year, the Open Championship.

Indeed, the moving around has taken a toll, as Mickelson hinted at in a recent press conference. “It’s been a pretty full schedule to me relative to what I was expecting it to be at 53. Playing 19 events this year with the four majors and the 14 LIV events and playing in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, so it’s been a lot of golf, but it’s been fun because there’s [sic] been enough breaks in between to where I get excited to get back out here,” he said.

Is Phil Mickelson getting the Tiger Woods treatment from his home tour?

The situation begs to ask – was Mickelson tricked in his endeavor to play less golf? With a celebrity name in their roster, the LIV Golf Series would benefit from their marquee player’s participation as they set off to debut in uncharted territories. It could become a point of conflict between the two parties moving forward, yet it looks to be another example of a golfer getting betrayed by their golf tour.

Having contested against Mickelson for large parts of the last couple of decades, Tiger Woods finds himself in a similar position to his nemesis, albeit on a different tour. The fifteen-time major champion allegedly refused a big-money move to LIV, but his loyalty turned futile after the announcement of the merger.

Consequently, Woods lost the opportunity to earn millions as a result of his commitment to the PGA TOUR, which made a sudden decision without dialogue with its players. Woods would have been undoubtedly hurt by the announcement, with his PGA TOUR future also cast in doubt.

While they might be on different trajectories, Mickelson and Woods find themselves floating in the same boat. As the horizon of their career nears, can their conflicts towards respective golf tours dissolve for a peaceful farewell? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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