Mickelson: Tour's "Obnoxious greed that has really opened the door for opportunities elsewhere."

Phil Mickelson unleashed a torrent of criticisms at the PGA Tour from the Saudi International. After a fairly benign press conference session, Mickelson told GolfDigest.com’s John Huggan that he’s been forced to consider various business opportunities because of the Tour’s “obnoxious greed.”

The us vs. them stance, even though players appear to have more control and influence over the PGA Tour’s operation, may not resonate very well with fans. Mickelson is aware of this danger but forged ahead with some incendiary comments.

“It’s not public knowledge, all that goes on,” Mickelson said. “But the players don’t have access to their own media. If the tour wanted to end any threat [from Saudi or anywhere else], they could just hand back the media rights to the players. But they would rather throw $25 million here and $40 million there than give back the roughly $20 billion in digital assets they control. Or give up access to the $50-plus million they make every year on their own media channel.

“There are many issues, but that is one of the biggest,” he continued. “For me personally, it’s not enough that they are sitting on hundreds of millions of digital moments. They also have access to my shots, access I do not have. They also charge companies to use shots I have hit. And when I did ‘The Match’—there have been five of them—the tour forced me to pay them $1 million each time. For my own media rights. That type of greed is, to me, beyond obnoxious.”

Two parts to this stand out. The rights to “my shots” would seem motivated by a desire to cash in on NFT’s. More concerning is the claim of personally paying $1 million each time he’s played The Match and the “beyond obnoxious” green of the Tour.

I reached out to the PGA Tour and will add any comment they might have on Mickelson’s claim.

It is well known that the organizers of such silly season events pay a fee to cover everything that comes with official Tour sanctioning of the event and support services like rules, scoring and promotion.

Mickelson also used an odd example with Huggan to support his case: the famous 2010 Masters shot off the pine needles.

There are other examples of what Mickelson clearly sees as golf’s equivalent of “intellectual property.” During the 2010 Masters, he famously hit a shot from the pine straw to the 13th green at Augusta National. Later, someone wanted to use seven seconds of that clip. They had to pay $30,000 per second every time it aired. The total cost was $3.5 million, which was three times what Mickelson earned for winning the tournament. (Editor's Note: Although the Masters counts as an official PGA Tour event, the event and its media are not owned by the PGA Tour.)

While that’s a hefty sum, it’s also a dubious claim to suggest this is part of his beef with the PGA Tour and undercuts any case he might have.

One of the more interesting points made to Huggan relates to the bizarre refusal of players to wear microphones and provide inside-the-ropes access. Mickelson claims there may be a business reason.

“Why hasn’t golf had cameras and microphones on players and caddies?” he asked. “Because the player would not benefit, only the tour [so players resist wearing them]. Take this Netflix project that is underway. None of the players are getting paid. But the tour is getting paid a lot of money. As is Augusta National. As is the USGA. But if the players had their own channel, maybe they put up their own content and we start to see golf presented a bit more intimately.

“If I had access to my own channel and access to my own media, I would have a camera and microphone on my hat,” he went on. “And on my [caddie] brother’s hat. And on my golf bag with a 360 view. And I would bring the viewers in. They would see and hear what is going on. But none of that happens [currently] because why would any player do that? To make more millions for the tour? They already make enough. The tour only understands leverage. And now the players are getting some of that. So things are changing and will continue to change. I just hope the leverage doesn’t go away. If it does, we’ll be back to the status quo.”

The “leverage” would be the Saudis who have no business model. As for fans? Hard to say how many would feel for his plight. It sounds like Mickelson isn’t worried what they think. For a fan favorite who has cashed in on his likability, that’s a risky game to play.