Phil Mickelson withdraws from PGA Championship: Golf Twitter erupts

Phil Mickelson would be the defending champion at the PGA Championship but the embattled 51-year-old won’t be teeing it up anymore at Southern Hills.

Just under a year ago, Phil Mickelson was defying the odds. The then-50-year-old reeled off a performance for the ages at the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island to capture the major championship crown for the second time in his career and give him six majors to his credit. It was a storybook moment.

But after the final page of that story, things have taken a turn that would’ve been near impossible to see coming.

Mickelson has been completely out of the public eye for months after comments he made regarding the upcoming and controversial Saudi golf league, now officially known as LIV Golf, and the atrocities committed by the Saudi government, which has provided substantial financial backing for the league.

With the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills upcoming, however, Mickelson was listed in the field and seemed primed to resurface. At least, that was the case until Friday afternoon when the PGA of America announced in a statement that, while the defending champion would’ve been welcome, he has withdrawn from the event and won’t defend his title.

Phil Mickelson withdraws from PGA Championship: Golf Twitter reactions

Particularly with the recent notes that he was included in the field list at Southern Hills (alongside Tiger Woods), golf Twitter was both shocked by the news and many were also saddened that the situation that led to the six-time major champion and defending PGA Champion withdrawing has gone this far.

https://twitter.com/Cam_Jourdan/status/1525226189866024960

We don’t have any information other than what is presented to us: Phil Mickelson won’t play next week in the second major of the year.

However, it’s difficult to not speculate that this decision is largely in line with Lefty’s decision to stay away from golf over the past few months since his explosive comments regarding LIV Golf and the Saudi financial backing of that start-up league. This would’ve been a media firestorm at the PGA Championship with him both as the defending champ and being in the public eye really for the first time since the controversy.

So when will we see Mickelson next? In all honesty, it likely won’t be until the first LIV Golf event the week of June 9. With the protection the new tour will likely provide him in that setting, it seems almost too easy to expect that to be the next time he pops up.

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