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Phil Mickelson bizarrely claims that he never did infamous interview with Alan Shipnuck

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In February 2022, the idea of LIV Golf was taking hold and causing many waves throughout the golf status quo. And then came Phil.

Just before the publishing day of journalist Alan Shipnuck’s unauthorized biography of the six-time major winner, the Fire Pit Collective contributor released a column entitled, “The Truth About Phil Mickelson and Saudi Arabia,” in which the author revealed details of a telephone conversation between the two a few months previously.

In it, Shipnuck reveals a few of the issues that were spoken about – the “opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates,” and the control that the tour had on media rights. “We played those shots, we created those moments, we should be the ones to profit. The Tour doesn’t need that money,” Shipnuck reports Mickelson to have said, “They are already sitting on an $800 million cash stockpile.”

During that infamous conversation, it is said that Phil called Saudi Arabia, “scary motherf*ckers to deal with,” and that, ” I’m not sure I even want [the SGL] to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the [PGA] Tour.”

Just a few days later, Mickelson took to social media to apologize for his comments, eventually takinng a self-imposed sabbatical from the game, withdrawing from both The Masters and the PGA Championship, an event he would have defended as the oldest major champion on record.

Golf has come a long way since.

In August, the PGA Tour announced several enhancements to the 2023 calendar, with increased prize-money and guaranteed league-based payments, almost certainly prompted by the momentum that LIV was building, and the calibre of player they were attracting. Was this because of the ‘leverage’ that Lefty had spoken about?

Either way, the tension between the PGA Tour (and DP World Tour) and the LIV organization has rarely been higher.

11 players sought an injunction against the PGA Tour though that has now reduced to a piffling number after several plaintiffs, including Mickelson, pulled out. Lately, LIV players continue to live (sorry) it up without particularly worrying about their former alliance – Dustin Johnson, for example, showing absolutely no remorse for his decision to go over to the so-called rebel tour, and Harold Varner has repeatedly said his decision was based on what was good for him and his family, and nobody else.

Whatever the outcome of all of this, we can trace much of the kerfuffle back to that fateful article of 17th February, so imagine the reaction when Mickelson came out with a denial of the entire interview, saying he “never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck.”

Golf writer Dylan Dethier posted a 26-second clip that may well influence the upcoming court case, as well as fan and Tour reaction, of Mickelson denying that any of his conversation was on the record:

Dethier follows up the tweet with a quote received from the now infamous author:.

“Shipnuck has said he’ll, “go to his grave” knowing it was fair game,” although Lefty is clearly hinting about a ‘private’ conversation going public.

This one will run and run….

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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