Phil Mickelson has claimed that he 'never did' an interview with his biographer Alan Shipnuck in which he described the state of Saudi Arabia as 'scary motherf*****s'. Mickelson's comments were released in February of this year by Shipnuck via Fire Pit Collective.
Mickelson was discussing his link up with the then rumoured Saudi Golf League, now more commonly know as the LIV Golf Series. As has been the case throughout the saga surrounding LIV, the six-time major champion was quizzed on the morality of working with the Saudis, amid the country's dismal human rights record.
Addressing this Mickelson described the Middle Eastern kingdom as 'motherf*****s', referring to the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, and the kingdom's horrific treatment of the LGBT community.
However, the 52-year-old was seemingly able to look past that and revealed a new-found partnership with the Saudi's and their investment gave him and his soon to be LIV allies 'leverage' over the PGA Tour. Following the comments Mickelson was widely criticised, forcing him into a three-and-half-month silent exile before his move to LIV Golf was confirmed at the beginning of June.
Four months and six LIV events on, Mickelson has hit back at his damning comments from February of this claiming he 'never did' an interview with Shipnuck. Speaking ahead of this week's LIV tournament in Jeddah. The American said: "So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck.
"And I find that my experience with everybody associated with LIV Golf has been nothing but incredibly positive and I have the utmost respect for everybody that I've been involved with.” Ahead of this week's event on Saudi soil the argument surrounding the nation's 'sportswashing' efforts by a number of human rights activists.
Mickelson however believes golf is in fact 'lucky' to have the funding and backing of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund [PIF]. He went on: "The game of golf is very lucky to have the PIF invest in the game.
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"The sport of the game of golf is being influxed with billions of dollars now. And the ability to go global and make golf a truly global sport is really beneficial for the game...It opens up opportunities to move professional golf throughout the world in other countries and grow the game internationally.
"Again, outside a few countries, the United States and the UK, where it's very negatively viewed currently, that has been changing and evolving. In a few years, it will be not only accepted but appreciated the involvement and the influx of capital into this sport and what it's doing."
