The PGA Tour Commissioner lied about no money, now he wants to work miracles. Mickelson was right

A lot of interesting things have happened in the golf world in the last few weeks. The whole colossus has been set in motion after a rival venture, LIV Golf, entered the scene and suddenly started to pull even the biggest aces from the PGA Tour. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan claimed until recently that finding more money for players on the American circuit wasn’t realistic, yet it finally happened.

One of the PGA Tour’s biggest critics has been its former longtime member Phil Mickelson. At the start of the 2022 calendar year, he was practically one of the first to give the nod to LIV Golf’s generous offer. He earned $200 million just for signing.

Around that time, Mickelson often leaned on the PGA Tour in the media, which he accused of being obnoxiously greedy towards its players. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan himself has publicly stated on several occasions that there was no way the traditional Tour could afford to compete financially with the Saudi earnings.

Only, after a slew of other big names began transferring to LIV Golf, the PGA realized it had to act. The significant increase in tournament fees was practically the first drastic step the PGA took to keep its players ahead of the LIV competition.

Thus, even the public’s much-criticized Mickelson finally got it right when he said at the time that the PGA Tour was greedily sitting on money. Now, months later, he has added to his earlier statements.

“I think the benefit of LIV Golf is for the fans, but more importantly for all golfers. All professional golfers. The guys on Tour are playing for a lot more money now. It’s great that the Tour management has miraculously found a few hundred million. That’s amazing,” the fifty-two-year-old Mickelson said wryly of the PGA.

Similar words are now being chosen by many fans who previously didn’t stand behind the harsh criticism from Mickelson. Many are now calling Monahan a liar.

The legendary winner of 45 majors is very happy for the current steps in world golf. But it’s far from just about earnings. Mickelson also puts a lot of weight on the fact that players’ demands are being heard much more today.

“I feel happy for the guys that their voice has weight today, that they are being valued and being heard. I’m happy that they’re being listened to and that their input is being valued,” he said in an interview with Sports Illustrated.

At the same time, he’s quite convinced that if it weren’t for the competitive LIV series, none of this would have happened:: “There arechanges happening that validate that, but it didn’t have to be that way because there was no other option or no other leverage to achieve it,” Mickelson believes.

Source: Sports Illustrated, Golf Extra