Phil Mickelson joins Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series

Phil Mickelson, a chief recruiter for a Saudi-funded rival league to the PGA Tour, is ending his four-month hiatus by adding his name to the 48-man field for the LIV Golf Invitational that starts Friday outside London.

Mickelson will be joining Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and three other former major champions in a 54-hole tournament at Centurion Golf Club with $25 million in prize money and $4 million going to the individual winner.

“I am ready to come back to play the game I love but after 32 years this new path is a fresh start, one that is exciting for me at this stage of my career,” Mickelson said in a statement posted on social media.

Mickelson also said he would be playing the last two majors, starting June 16 in the US Open at The Country Club outside Boston.

He said the “transformative” new league would allow him to focus on a healthier approach to life on and off the course. Mickelson did not mention the signing fee, which is likely to be every bit of the US$125 million or more reportedly paid to Johnson.

It will be Mickelson’s first time playing since February 6 at the Saudi International, where he first began to draw attention to how he was leaning when he accused the PGA Tour of “obnoxious greed” in an interview with Golf Digest.

Two weeks later, Alan Shipnuck published excerpts from his unauthorised biography on Mickelson in which the six-time major champion acknowledged Saudi Arabia’s human rights atrocities, including the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, but said it was worth getting involved if it meant gaining leverage to make changes on the PGA Tour.

Mickelson also said he and three other top players paid lawyers to write the operating agreement of the new league. He later apologised for what he said were reckless comments, without mentioning the PGA Tour.