Mickelson has largely disappeared from public view since receiving backlash for his controversial comments.
Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm are co-favorites to win the 2022 PGA Championship
As the tour prepares to head into the Southern Hills, USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio looks ahead to the biggest storylines ahead of the 2022 PGA Championship.
US TODAY
RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. — Phil Mickelson’s estate of golf greens and bunkers at his 13,000-square-foot mansion was on the move one day this week.
The wooden front gate swung open as a dry cleaner’s van arrived. Inside, gardeners cut and trimmed the 5.85-acre property about 25 miles north of San Diego. And a man who introduced himself as a property manager greeted a reporter hoping to speak with Mickelson, the Hall of Fame golfer.
“Right now he’s actually in meetings,” the house manager told USA TODAY Sports.
But Mickelson’s mother was available to speak. She said her son is the happier she hasn’t seen him in years and has been seen occasionally in public during his three-month absence from professional golf.
“I didn’t recognize him at first,” Mary Mickelson told USA TODAY Sports during a phone interview. “He had a bit of a beard and mustache. I can’t remember him ever doing that before. Not many people recognize him, so it was fun to be able to date him.”
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On Thursday, Mickelson could have teeed off at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and defended the PGA championship he won last year when, at 50, he became the oldest golfer to win a major.
Instead he remains in exile.
Three months ago, Mickelson spoke out in favor of a Saudi-backed breakaway Gulf tour, despite acknowledging the country’s “appalling human rights record,” including the execution of gay people and the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national who worked for the US worked Washington Post.
Faced with backlash for his comments, Mickelson retreated to his mansion and largely disappeared from public view.
“I wish you could see him now,” said Mary Mickelson. “He’s relaxed, he’s laughing all the time. He doesn’t talk on the phone with people calling him this and that and please play in this tournament and it’s hard when you have to say no when you don’t have time. But he made a lot of time for our family.
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“Tim and Tina, his brother and sister, mentioned that too. How happy he seems. How relaxed and comfortable. And if it means all of this through…I’m happy for him.
“I think you’re going to see a different person when he decides to come back and when he plays, someone who will enjoy playing just to play.”
When Mickelson comes back?
“We don’t talk about (golf) very much,” she said. “I know when he comes to visit we are always in the backyard putting and chipping and just playing around. I guess he’s coming out of there. I really don’t know exactly.”
Mickelson’s absence from the PGA Championship is much to the chagrin of his supporters like Charles Barkley.
“I think it’s time for him to wake up from hibernation,” Barkley, the NBA Hall of Famer-turned-broadcaster, said in a recent phone interview with USA TODAY Sports.
Barkley, who teamed with Mickelson and defeated Peyton Manning and Steph Curry during a celebrity golf game in 2020, said he spoke to Mickelson.
“I spoke to Phil and I said to him, ‘Hey man, how long are you going to hide? It’s about time you came out,” Barkley said. “Phil is my friend and will always be my friend. That doesn’t mean he didn’t screw it up. But the idea that he has to stay in his house for the rest of his life is just (expletive).”
It turns out that Mickelson has left his home but has held back thanks to the new mustache and beard, according to Mickelson’s mother.
She said her son’s public outings included watching his nephew play little league baseball and his niece play lacrosse.
At a recent San Carlos Little League game, astute spectators noticed that Phil Mickelson was watching the action from an adjacent field rather than the stands.
The golfer, whose own three children are in college, has made several visits to his parents’ home in San Diego during his golf break, according to Mickelson’s mother.
“He spent a whole day with these little ones, his nephew and niece, and they really saw a different side of him,” said Mary Mickelson. “And now, every time we’re together, they talk to him more and seem to appreciate him more, whereas before they mostly watched on TV.
“These things are so important to him and I think he’s probably forgotten how important they were. Slowly one gets pulled away from getting more business done, but things that really mattered most to him weren’t getting done. So I think he’s in such a good place now and every time I see him it’s like he seems to be getting better and better.
On April 28, video surfaced of Mickelson hitting a drive at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club, of which he is a member. It was the first public evidence that he was back on a golf course instead of working on his short game outside his home.
The videotaping incident violated the club’s privacy code, said Michael Jack, director of golf at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club. Jack declined to answer questions about Mickelson.
“I have special marching orders for that,” he said.
But enough with the hiding, said Barkley, who offered advice to Mickelson.
“He has to do a seated interview and have them ask him tough questions,” Barkley said, “and then apologize on camera and then move on. You know, he released a statement (apologetic). But statements are not the same as someone saying it to your face. I think he needs to do a seated interview and apologize. And then that’s it, that’s all he can do.”
Later in the day, the caretaker of Mickelson’s estate again greeted the reporter with an update on the interview request.
“He’s just not interested at this point, I guess,” the man said.