Tiger Woods (left) and Phil Mickelson.Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty; Richard Sellers/PA Images via Getty
Tiger WoodsandPhil Mickelsonare at odds when it comes to the PGA Tour.
Ahead of the PGA Championship’s start in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this week, Woods, 46, was asked about longtime tourmate Mickelson’s decision not to defend his title at the major tournament, and recent remarks about the tour overall.
Woods told reporters at Southern Hills that he has not spoken to Mickelson since the 51-year-old stepped away from his golf career after he made some controversial statements regarding the PGA Tour and several Saudi Arabian financiers of a separate golf circuit.
“I have not reached out to him; I have not spoken to him,” Woods said, theNew York Timesreported. “A lot of it has not to do with, I think, personal issues. It was our viewpoints of how the tour should be run and could be run, and what players are playing for and how we are playing for it. I have a completely different stance on that, so no, I have not.”
Mickelson has spoken out before about wanting to “reshape” the PGA Tour during a conversation with author Alan Shipnuck, whose unofficial biography of the golfer was published Tuesday — afterhe also saidthe PGA Tour had “obnoxious greed.” The golfer told Shipnuck in a chat he says he believed was off the record that he would overlook the alleged human rights violations of the Saudi Arabian government as a political move to further push his career and participate in the LIV Golf Invitational Series.
“They’re scary motherf—ers to get involved with,” Mickelson said in the conversation with Shipnuck last November. “They killed [Washington Postreporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”
“Some of his views on how the Tour could be run, should be run, been a lot of disagreement there. Obviously we’re going to have difference of opinions, how he sees the Tour, and we’ll go from there,” continued Woods,USA Todayreported.
Woods noted that Mickelson has his own “opinion” on the future of golf, while he, too, has a “viewpoint” on the subject. “I’ve supported the Tour and my foundation has run events on the Tour for a number of years,” Woods said. “I just think that what Jack [Nicklaus] and Arnold [Palmer] have done in starting the Tour and breaking away from the PGA of America and creating our tour in ‘68 or ‘69, somewhere in there, I just think there’s a legacy to that.”
He added, “I still think that the Tour has so much to offer, so much opportunity.”
Still, Woods said that Mickelson would be missed at the championship where he made history last year and called his fellow athlete a “big draw for the game of golf.”
A rep for Mickelson did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Woods’ remarks.
source: people.com
