Six-time major champion Phil Mickelson has registered to play in the 2022 PGA Championship and 2022 U.S. Open, agent Steve Loy announced Monday. However, while Mickelson will be registered and eligible for the field at the next two majors on the calendar, he has not yet committed to playing either event and is simply keeping his options open.
"Phil currently has no concrete plans on when and where he will play," Loy said in a statement.
Perhaps even more interestingly, Mickelson also filed a request with the PGA Tour for an exemption to play the LIV Golf Invitational, which will be held June 9-11 in London. The Tour's deadline for an exemption request was April 25. Mickelson is one of 15 top-100 players in the world who registered for the event, according to Sports Illustrated's Bob Harig,
"This request complies with the deadline of April 25 set forth by the PGA Tour to compete in a conflicting tour event," said Loy.
That June 9-11 London event is, of course, part of the reason Mickelson has not made an appearance on the PGA Tour since the Farmers Insurance Open in January and why this release was necessary to begin with. After it was disclosed that Mickelson called the folks funding the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series "scary motherfu*****", as well as the fact that he had helped write the operating agreement for the league while still a PGA Tour member, Lefty lost most of his sponsors, issued an apology and has not been heard from since.
Mickelson skipped the 2022 Masters earlier this month -- the first time he's missed that tournament since 1994 -- and there has been much speculation over whether he will also skip next month's PGA Championship at Southern Hills, where he would be the defending champion.
Either way, it will be an historic moment. Mickelson will either be the oldest defending champion in major championship history or he will hold the rare distinction of missing a major championship as the defending champion despite no apparent injury and no apparent reason other than that he's not yet ready to make a public appearance.
This could also be a fork-in-the-road moment for multiple golf leagues. The PGA Tour has vowed to ban anyone who flees the PGA Tour for the LIV Golf Invitational Series, a position that PGA Tour commissioner said recently he is confident would be upheld if it came to blows in the courts.
"Our PGA Tour rules and regulations were written by the players, for the players," said Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. "They've been in existence for over 50 years. I'm confident in our rules and regulations, my ability to administer them, and that's my position on the matter. ... We're confident in our position, and we're going to keep moving forward as a PGA Tour and focus on the things that we control."
Mickelson is ranked No. 54 in the world right now, and while he's not likely to be the highest-ranked player who could potentially play in the series, he will certainly be the biggest name. He could also play a massive part in what the future of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf holds by helping push everything into high-profile litigation by trying to play multiple tours at once.
Or, he may be past the point of no return personally. While he did issue an apology for what he said and how he said it, he also never vowed to return to the PGA Tour and has not mentioned its place in his life or his career at all. If and when he does return to professional golf, there's a scenario in which he could try and play the major championships -- which are not facilitated by the PGA Tour -- and then the LIV Golf Invitational Series as his de facto "regular" tour.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman said recently that Mickelson is welcome back with open arms to the tour he's in charge of operating.
"The fans are really behind Phil," Norman told Golf.com. "And he did make a mistake, there's no question about it. And I will give Phil the time. I haven't spoken to him since. I'm respecting his wishes about stepping away and having the opportunity to regroup himself. But I've had numerous conversations with Phil before that about how passionate he was about LIV Golf and the opportunities that he could have. … I feel sad for Phil. I feel for Phil. But like I said, he's always going to have an open door to the game of golf as far as I'm concerned."
