The future is the most important that is known to be the most difficult test in golf, the only thing that prevents him from joining the most elite golf team with the Grand Slam career. And that seems to be very different from anyone else Mickelson has encountered. The six-time champion is competing on US soil for the first time in more than four months, now the face of a Saudi-sponsored tournament aimed at disrupting the PGA Tour. At stake is his popularity, which has accumulated over 30 years for his victories and defeats, just as memorable. “As for whether the fans would leave or not, I respect and understand their views and I understand that they have strong feelings and strong feelings about this choice,” Mickelson said. “And I respect that.” He did not add to his comments last week outside London, where Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and 15 others defied PGA Tour rules by competing in Greg Norman’s new LIV Golf Series, which paid Lefty $ 200 million for his registration. Mickelson said that while touring players have been suspended – some of them resigned before last week’s first spin – he did not rule out playing the PGA Tour again. He said on Monday that this must be his decision. “I have worked hard to earn a lifetime subscription,” said Mickelson, whose six big companies are part of his 45 career tour victories. “I have worked hard to reciprocate the PGA Tour and the game of golf during my more than 30 years of professional golf, and I have earned this lifetime subscription, so I think it should be my choice.” He was wearing a black shirt with his personal logo – an image of him jumping in the 18th green at Augusta National with his hands in the air since winning the 2004 Masters for his first big. He still has this beard, without a hat, and asked questions for 25 minutes. But sometimes he stopped talking, often looked at his feet before answering, the words did not run as easily as usual. He was upset when he felt that the journalists were asking more than one question. One was about the concept of inheritance and whether it would change its own now that it was funded by the state investment fund of Saudi Arabia. “I do not like it when you ask a lot of questions,” he replied. As for his legacy, he said he appreciated what the PGA Tour did for him and “I’m excited about the opportunity LIV Golf offers me.” “I think there is an obvious incredible financial commitment,” he said. Otherwise, he took a straight path. For the legion of fans who are angry with him for taking money from Saudi Arabia to play in a rival golf league, he understands that emotions are exhausted and respects their views. He expressed his deepest condolences to the families of those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks – all but four of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals – even when a group of victims demanded that Mickelson and others leave. LIV Golf funded by Saudi Arabia. Anything related to his future on the PGA Tour that he felt would be speculation. Any changes to the US Open criteria were not meant to be made public. Mickelson earned a five-year exemption from winning the PGA Championship last year at the age of 50, becoming the oldest player to win a major championship. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan spoke in public on Sunday for the first time since the players left LIV Golf. Among his arguments about the source of the funding, Monahan said: “I would ask any player who has left, or any player who would ever consider leaving, ‘Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?’ Michelson has said he has not spoken to Munich since October. Asked if he felt he needed to apologize for being part of the Saudi-backed circuit, Mickelson refused to take the bait. “There are a lot of things that the PGA Tour has done over the years that I agree with, and there are a lot of things that I disagree with, and yet I have supported them in every way,” he said. Other views he had about the tour or any other government body that he said would be kept private “because it was one of the biggest mistakes I made was to express all these little things”. It all started. Mickelson was referred to by the Golf Digest in February as referring to the “hateful greed” of the PGA Tour while in Saudi Arabia receiving a seven-figure pay-per-view. Golf writer Alan Sipnuk then published an excerpt from his biography of Mickelson, who described him as calling the Saudis behind the new league a “scary mother- (strict)” and saying he was willing to get involved so he could gain leverage to make changes to the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, a league dating back to 1895 kicks off Thursday at The Country Club, which it has inherited as one of USGA’s five founding clubs. The debate over Saudi Arabia has been so widespread that the US Open has become an afterthought. “You can not go anywhere without someone mentioning it,” said Justin Thomas. “This is the US Open, and this is an incredible place, a place with so much history, an incredible field, so many stories, and yet that seems to be the subject of all the questions. “This is not right for the US Open. “This is not right for us players,” he said. “But, unfortunately, we are there right now.”
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