Becoming silent at the Champions Dinner seems to be becoming a pattern for Phil Mickelson. Why? Because what happened last year during the Champions Dinner happened this year too!
Lefty’s last year’s appearance on Masters Tuesday night dinner could only be described as “awkward.”. According to Fuzzy Zoeller, the 1979 Masters champion, Phil Mickelson “sat near the end of the table” and “didn’t speak at all” throughout the evening. As per the latest remarks made by Nick Faldo, even this year, Mickelson was dead silent.
Faldo took to Sky Sports to talk about Mickelson’s 2024 Champions Dinner appearance and said, “Phil was very quiet on Tuesday; he didn’t say a word.” “He was dead quiet, standing next to me. I wonder why,” added the 3x Masters champion Faldo. The golfer could not be speaking because golfers such as Faldo, and a few others in the room have bashed the Saudi-funded league, and the defected players quite a lot.
This quiet attitude seems to be an ongoing trend for Mickelson. The golfer was not given any presser before the tournament started, and the only players to get time with media from LIV were Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm. According to Dylan Dethier of Golf.com, Lefty “declined a full-on media center feeding-frenzy press conference” on Tuesday.
Dethier said that Mickelson “gave the impression he didn’t want to say much of anything at all” when it came to potentially controversial topics. Either this is the truth or the six-time major champion is not being offered the respect he deserves at Augusta! Ever since Mickelson defected to LIV Golf, fans have been harsh towards him! One would think that the dust on the entire LIV Golf-PGA Tour battle would have settled by now, but no, that is not the case so far. With Mickelson’s Masters woes continuing, one cannot forget what happened in 2022.
Mickelson’s Augusta woes started in 2022.
Mickelson has been keeping a low profile this year following his absence from the 2022 Masters. He faced criticism for his comments about the Saudi-backed golf league before he decided not to participate.
According to leaked information from a biography by Alan Shipnuck, Mickelson referred to the Saudis as “scary” individuals.
Due to the intense scrutiny he was facing, Mickelson chose to skip the Masters that year. This marked the first time since 1994 that Mickelson had missed the Masters tournament.
The conflict between Shipnuck and Mickelson intensified significantly following the incident, with the golfer alleging that he had never participated in any interviews with the author. Shipnuck addressed the situation on Twitter, providing a thorough explanation.