PGA Tour Commissioner Has Strong Words for Phil Mickelson

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — In his first assembly with reporters since Phil Mickelson’s controversial remarks about providing help to an upstart Saudi-backed golf league, Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, mentioned on Tuesday that he had not talked with Mickelson however that he didn’t absolve him from future punishment for his feedback.

With Mickelson recently announcing he was taking a break from golf — an absence that features the Gamers Championship this week — Monahan was requested if Mickelson had been suspended, or if he may have entered this week’s event.

“He stepped away on his personal accord, and he’s requested for time,” Monahan mentioned. “He’s been given that point. We don’t touch upon disciplinary issues, potential issues or precise issues. However each participant is accountable for his or her actions out right here.”

Monahan added: “The ball is in his court docket. I’d welcome a cellphone name from him. However it’s onerous for me to speak in regards to the totally different situations that would play out.

“Hear, he’s a participant that’s gained 45 occasions on the PGA Tour. He’s had a Corridor of Fame profession. He’s gained right here on the Gamers Championship. He’s impressed lots of people and helped develop this tour, his tour. In order troublesome as it’s to learn a few of the issues that had been mentioned, in the end a dialog will likely be had when he’s able to have it, and I will likely be able to have it as nicely.”

In an interview for an unauthorized biography to be launched in Could, Mickelson instructed a journalist, Alan Shipnuck, the ebook’s creator, that his intentional involvement with the brand new league was to make use of it as “leverage” to extend PGA Tour gamers’ earnings. Mickelson additionally talked about soliciting assistance from different golfers to pay for a lawyer to help the rival league.

In opening remarks earlier than addressing reporters’ questions on Tuesday, Monahan indicated he had put the specter of the choice league behind him. He additionally appeared to take a refined jab at Mickelson.

“Now we have an excessive amount of momentum and an excessive amount of to perform to be persistently distracted by rumors of different golf leagues and their makes an attempt to disrupt our gamers, our companions and most significantly our followers from having fun with the tour and the sport all of us love a lot,” he mentioned. Monahan added, “We’re and we at all times will likely be targeted on legacy, not leverage.”

Monahan was additionally requested about accusations by Greg Norman, who has turn out to be a face of management of the proposed new league, that the PGA Tour was bullying gamers to stay with the established circuit.

“Individuals know me they usually know the way I play and the way we function and the values that we stand for, and I don’t assume there’s any query that that’s not how I function,” Monahan responded. “I haven’t had lots of people ask me about it as a result of folks know me. I’m proper right here.”

Almost all the world’s top-ranked males’s golfers have pledged their loyalty to the PGA Tour, which has warned gamers that they might be prohibited from taking part in on the tour in the event that they agreed to play occasions from the choice league.

Norman has insisted that the PGA Tour’s boycott wouldn’t maintain up in court docket. Monahan disagreed. “Our guidelines and rules had been written by the gamers, for the gamers — they’ve been in existence for over 50 years,” he mentioned. “I’m assured in our guidelines and rules, my skill to manage them, and that’s my place on the matter.”