Is Phil Mickelson Still A Major Player?

To those who are Golf fanatics, the name “Lefty”, will mean something. But to some of us who are more about kicking a ball around rather than hitting it with a metal stick across hundreds of yards, the name Phil Mickelson may ring a bell.

And if you still have no clue who this person is, I’ll break it down for you in one sentence - he is an American Professional Golfer, who has won 44 events on the PGA Tour and one of the three players in the world to win 4 of the 5 major golf championships and went on to win the famous ‘Green Jacket’ given to honorary members only.

Your ears must be burning by now… tell you more?

Indeed, I will.

From family to fame, Mickelson seems to have it all. Having been playing golf for over 25+ years, he has made a professional name for himself and his family. It looks like all his hard work, discipline and dedication has certainly paid off, literally, with a combination of his pro career, tournaments prize money, appearances, all coupled with the numerous sponsorship deals he has with big giants such as ExxonMobil, Ford, Barclays, Rolex, and KPMG to name a few and has been dubbed the second-highest-paid athlete in the United States with somewhere between $ 53 million and $ 62 million in total.

A Clean Slate?

Of course, not everyone’s as clear as crystal and we all have skeletons in our closet. Especially when you have that much money available to you, why wouldn’t you want to be ‘adventurous’ about it?

Phil was accused of insider trading back in 2014. Authorities investigated him and his associates at Clorox Stock, but Phil denied ever being involved in this sort of shady business. They let him off, but not after he paid back the $1 million, he made from it. Whether he did indeed partake in it or not is left to the viewers (and authorities) discretion.

Another instance, that was indirectly his fault, was going to play the Saudi International golf tournament, and as a result was accused of supporting the middle east’s human rights abuse, that goes on in their nation. Perhaps he was offered more money or perhaps he had another agenda, either way, people thought it was not very nice of him to do that.

As if that wasn’t enough of drama for one person’s lifetime. Last year, in 2019, he was part of a group of other celebrity parents such as Felicity Huffman who were accused of bribing educational institution authorities to accept their children into whichever college they want to be admitted and even coaxing them into helping pass their SAT examinations. Some of the parents even bribed sports coaches into getting their kids enrolled. You can read more about this scandal here https://golf.com/news/phil-mickelson-college-scandal-rick-singer/

Family Comes First

With his wife Amy and his three kids, Phil seems to have done a good job of balancing both his career and his personal life. Even though unfortunately his wife went through an entire year without being able to accompany him on any of his tours because she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She did pull through that hard year and make it back to being what some have named her as the “the first lady” of course.

At the end of the day, with everything that has happened, he seems to have kept it all together whilst continuing his life-long passion and well-established career. And even with having a family of three kids and his wife whom he has been married to since his college years. No matter what happens, this, most often puts the cherry on the top. Unlike a lot of golfers out there who mix their personal and professional life’s dirty laundry’ onto the pitch, Phil has his together. You can read all about this on his fan site aptly named the Phil Mickelson website here.

All in all, it looks like the answer to our original question is yes. At the ripe age of 49 years old he is still a major player and will probably continue to be one for yet another couple more years.

Is Phil Mickelson Still A Major Player? to Other Sports

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