Being in the crosshairs of Phil Mickelson has landed journalist Alan Shipnuck in trouble many times. As a famous golfer, Mickelson has always been closely followed by the media. For journalist Alan Shipnuck, in particular, he has always been a big subject of interest.
Phil Mickelson has earned many a nemesis in his career, but Shipnuck has been a constant one. Last year after Shipnuck was thrown out by security at the LIV Golf London event. He even got the sympathy of Paige Spiranac, who mocked Greg Norman for this. In his recent appearance on the Bunkered podcast, Shipnuck makes an honest confession about the incident.
Alan Shipnuck explained what happened at the 2022 LIV Golf event in London
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Alan Shipnuck is a big name in sports journalism. During his time with Sports Illustrated, he has covered more than 70 of golf’s major championships. He later even worked for Golf Magazine as well. Throughout his career, Phil Mickelson has been a big person of interest. He covered Lefty extensively.
In fact, Shipnuck has covered so much content about Phil that he ended up writing a book on him called Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar but the two always shared a negative relationship for a long time.
Recently Shipnuck appeared on the Bunkered Golf podcast hosted by DC Thompson and reflected on an unfortunate incident at LIV Golf London last year, where he was thrown out by security during Mickelson’s press conference.
He says, “Unwinding the whole thing, it was really Mickelson’s people is a management company. Andrew Getson, his swing coach, like they were the heavies who sent in the goons. It wasn’t really LIV per se. Norman kind of, I think, wandered into the middle of the whole situation. He clearly could have interceded and de-escalated it and he chose not to and then he lied about it which was really lame.”
He accused Greg Norman of not coming to his aid despite being present there. The relationship between the reporter and the golfer has been unhealthy for a long time.
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When Phil Mickelson confronted Shipnuck for insensitive comments?
In 1999, Mickelson was suffering from an eating disorder and had put on a lot of weight. On this, Shipnuck made an insensitive comment which when it reached the golfer, struck his nerves. During that year’s PGA Championship, he called aside Alan and confronted him to communicate any ill will he has against the golfer.
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“If you have a problem with me, just throw the first punch.” Phil had said. That day Shipnuck dodged a bullet but he did not leave Mickelson and hence the rivalry continues to exist to date.
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