OT-Phil Mickelson will no longer golf in Detroit golf tournament
I've never been a fan of his so I'm biased, but to me this is a punk move. The News recently reported that Phil lost a bunch of money to a bookie in Detroit years ago and now Phil says he will no longer play in the Quicken Loans tournament. Super petty and stupid as the two have nothing to do with one another but what really got me is this quote from the piece regarding charitable work...
“'I was looking at some ways where my foundation might be able to get involved and when you have a divisive voice like that you can't bring people together,' he said. He did not offer any specifics on his plans."
Unless the News is manipulating this quote this is pretty low. He is not obligated to give the nonprofits of Detroit a penny but to essentially say "I am so selfless for considering making some donations but one of the newspapers reported on something that made me mad and now it's just not possible for me to donate but please give me credit anyway"
Am I being reasonable or do I need to quit drinking and go to bed?
I'm happy the tournament is in town, but outside the charitable giving (which is great) this isn't a big event at all for local hotels, restaurants, etc. There isn't a restaurant scene right next to the course and basically all attendees are local. Can't imagine more than maybe 500-1000 folks (players, caddies, media, etc) are using hotels for a few days.
The Detroit News made a poor decision publishing old news for clicks. And Phil Mickelson is overreacting to it. Given some time, my guess is both parties will apologize for the things they've said and Phil will be back next year and the year after.
Perhaps, but I'm not sure how that would work. I don't think much of either Detroit paper, but the News won't want to see themselves as being pushed around by a public figure who isn't complaining what was reported was wrong, just that it was "old news." If the News does that, are they going to start apologizing for other factual stories that annoyed public figures? Very doubtful.
And Phil has made it clear, very publicly, he's annoyed and said he won't be coming back -- it would take some humility to say, "You know, while I still disagree with the decision to publish the story, I realize I was hasty in my announcement, as the tournament and the city had nothing to do with it..." and come back next year. Superstar athletes aren't know for their humility; they -- understandably, as it enables them to achieve at a very high-level -- have a lot of pride and self-regard.
Double.
The only reason the News published the article is because of the local angle—the connection to my former fellow Grosse Pointe residents, the Giacalone family.
The same decision to publish would have been made long before the internet—if it's got a local connection to a reasonably infamous local crime family, most papers in the country would publish it.
"Las Vegas gambler William “Billy” Walters was convicted in an insider trading case in 2017 that had ties to the golfer. Walters was convicted of conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud after prosecutors told a jury he helped Mickelson earn $1 million in 2012 with stock trades in a Dallas-based company so the golfer could cover gambling debts, according to the Associated Press."
Sounds like there was a substantial amount of money that Phil owed to bookies.
I’ve always dislike Mickelson as well. He comes across as a pompous ass.
I'm kind of with Phil on this one. He didn't do anything wrong and was never implicated in anything, but the only reason they Detroit News chose to bring up a 23-year-old story involving a dead guy was because Phil was in town. Quite honestly, there's really nothing to the story and it didn't need to be written, and it would never have come out if Phil didn't come to town.
Haven't read through the entire thread so forgive me if this has already been mentioned but shouldn't gambling be a big red flag for the PGA? Pete Rose is not in the HOF due to gambling.
Gambling is a big part of golf, especially for Phil's vintage of player. The younger guys don't do it as much now. They gamble on practice rounds, etc., never on the main events so the PGA doesn't care.
The gambling at issue here is on other sports. Phil is a notorious whale.
At 51, he wasn't likely coming back anyway as he won't be a regular on the junior circuit but this does give him the click bait he wants to extract his pound of flesh from the Detroit News
He turns a non-story into a story.
Mickelson always has been a favorite of mine, and I was ecstatic to see him win the PGA this year.
That said, this is a ridiculous overreaction on his part. Fine, a dick reporter recycled a shitty story that makes you look bad. Take it up with TDN. "Decide" not to come back and play here again. All fine. But that press conference made him look petty and bitter. And pulling charity work / donations? That's just awful, and honestly makes him worse than the reporter. Such a bad look and horrible decision.
Thanks to his reaction, I'm sure the rehashed story is generating 100 times the clicks it would have ordinarily received.
In other words, he's taking great care to pay the salaries of the very same people who just offended him. Who knows, maybe they paid him to make a big stink - newspapers can't be as choosy about how they generate revenue these days.
I'm not sure what an office of journalists has to do with a region, either. I get why he's upset the story was rehashed. Probably would warrant not granting interviews with them in the future.
When you get so self-important that you want to choose where you play for reasons other than the competition and the potential pay-off, it's hard to care about you or root for you. Maybe there's value in getting people to root against you, too. It sure is working for that guy who takes 22 hours to complete 18 holes.
Would a legal sports betting operation stiff their customers? Or is that a strong sign that illegal bets were involved?
It might be an old event, but according to the News story it's not old news; we don't know when the bets were made, but DeSerrano testified about it in 2007 at the trial of Jack Giacalone, but the testimony only showed up in the transcripts a few years ago.
There were huge crowds around him and Fowler all day and he made the weekend. I enjoy an athlete that tells the press to STFU every now and then, we need more of that
Somewhat related. I have 2 free tickets to the Rocket Mortgage Classic (plus a parking pass) up for grabs if anyone wants them for free.
Went on Thursday just to see Phil play and the Ross designed DGClub (which was beautiful). Phil was reasonably gracious to the fans and in a great group with Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama. There was a three-hour rain delay and he spent too much time on Twitter during that time. I was a Phil fan but agree he sounded like a petulant child, but also agree about the poor tabloid, clickbait direction the News and Freepress have taken.
The Sullivan act of kindness petition is none other than ex-Valenti sidekick Mike Sullivan! Irony?! One doesn't need to publicize or be fake about one's charitable / act of kindness and I will not sign that petition.
Bryson DeChambeau had drama and incredible disappointment and handled it much better. Phil made a one-day story into a three-day story.