{"id":773504,"date":"2026-07-02T04:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773504\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T04:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:11:11","slug":"phil-mickelson-may-never-play-high-level-golf-again-after-scandals-pros-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773504\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Mickelson May Never Play High-Level Golf Again After Scandals, Pros Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Phil\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Former golf pros believe Phil Mickelson may never again compete at a high level, arguing his scandals permanently changed his career.<\/p>\n

Phil Mickelson\u2019s chances of returning as an elite golfer may be gone for good, according to former professionals who believe the fallout from his off-course scandals has permanently altered the six-time major champion\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

Their blunt assessment comes as Mickelson continues to withdraw from LIV Golf events as well as the Open Championship<\/a> and faces growing skepticism about whether he can ever play again at golf\u2019s highest level, after a series of serious misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Nick O\u2019Hern and Mark Allen Lament Mickelson\u2019s Future<\/p>\n

Former PGA Tour pro Mark Allen and former world No. 16 Nick O\u2019Hern took up the subject on their podcast \u201cTalk Birdie To Me\u201d<\/a> Wednesday, sidestepping the specifics of the allegations against Mickelson while weighing what they mean for his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be very difficult for him to play golf again at a high level,\u201d Allen said. \u201cEven if LIV continues in some form, I\u2019m not sure he\u2019ll be part of it. It\u2019s a sad way for it to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen recalled a time when fans compared Mickelson to Arnold Palmer and he built an image as a devoted family man. O\u2019Hern called the situation a \u201cdownfall,\u201d pointing back to Mickelson\u2019s peak, when he won the PGA Championship before jumping to LIV, and noting his exits, not all voluntary, from multiple private clubs.<\/p>\n

Broadcasting once looked like Mickelson\u2019s natural landing spot, but the hosts agreed that path now looks closed off, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could have written his own ticket in broadcasting,\u201d O\u2019Hern said. \u201cHe would have been an incredible analyst \u2014 imagine him alongside Jim Nantz.\u201d Allen agreed, noting Trevor Immelman has excelled in the booth but Mickelson \u201cwould have been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Allegations and Mickelson\u2019s Response<\/p>\n

The podcast conversation followed Alan Shipnuck\u2019s reporting for Skratch<\/a>, built on interviews with 19 sources, alleging a pattern of misconduct toward women dating to 2015, along with Mickelson\u2019s abrupt exits from three Southern California golf clubs. O\u2019Hern referenced the reporting on the show, noting the legal scrutiny involved. \u201cYou\u2019d have to assume there\u2019s strong verification given the legal risks,\u201d O\u2019Hern said, adding that Mickelson has gone largely silent since the story broke.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hern also raised persistent rumors of gambling and financial trouble following Mickelson, though he stressed those issues stand apart from the misconduct claims. Regardless of the source, he said, the pattern points toward a career winding down far from how it once looked destined to end.<\/p>\n

That reporting followed an earlier account from Joel Beall and Tod Leonard of Golf Digest<\/a>, who revealed Mickelson was confronted mid-round and told to leave The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, California, following a female employee\u2019s accusation of unwanted physical contact. Mickelson later resigned his membership after decades at the club, Golf Digest reported.<\/p>\n

Mickelson\u2019s attorney, Tom Clare, said some allegations against his client are false, while others \u201crevisit mistakes he has already acknowledged, publicly or privately,\u201d according to Skratch. A spokesperson said Mickelson\u2019s priority now is his family, adding that he is focused on a private health matter involving family members.<\/p>\n

Mickelson has skipped every major this year for the first time in his career and is not currently entered in the PGA Tour\u2019s returning-member pathway that brought Brooks Koepka back into the PGA fold<\/a>. His name technically remains on the entry list for next month\u2019s Open Championship, though O\u2019Hern and Allen made clear on their show that they doubt he\u2019ll be teeing it up at the sport\u2019s top level ever again.<\/p>\n

The podcast posted on social media, asking: Has Mickelson \u201ccooked\u201d his golf career? Judging by O\u2019Hern and Allen\u2019s read on the situation, the answer is trending toward yes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJonathan Vankin<\/a> JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Former golf pros believe Phil Mickelson may never again compete at a high level, arguing his scandals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-773504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}