News

Court documents reveal Phil Mickelson once paid $1.95 million in gambling debts

Published

9 years ago

Mar 31, 2017

Phil Mickelson is a gambler. Whether money is involved or not, Mickelson takes risks. It could be going for the green from the pine straw on Sunday at No. 13 at Augusta or throwing a couple dollars on a Monday game with Keegan Bradley.

Lefty got himself caught up with the law in an insider trading case in 2016, however, where he was linked with professional gambler Billy Walters who’s now on trial in a Manhattan federal court. While Mickelson is absolved of any wrongdoing and will not need to testify in the case, it was revealed in court the amount of money that’s at stake when Mickelson gambles.

According to the New York Post, court documents showed that Mickelson once paid Walters $1.95 million for gambling debts in 2012. And the way it sounds, that wasn’t the first time Mickelson had to pony up that kind of dough.

“Mr. Mickelson owed similar debt to Mr. Walters in the past,” prosecutor Brooke Cucinella told the jury.

Keep in mind that court documents also revealed Mickelson “earned $48 million” in 2012, and Forbes estimated his net worth to be $375 million in 2016.

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19 Comments

Fat Perez

Apr 3, 2017 at 1:31 pm

How can you not love the Dill Pickle apologists? Deep guys crack me up!!

Reply Report comment
Justin

Apr 2, 2017 at 12:04 am

I have first hand seen Phil gamble. He came to coto De Gaza in Orange county and played a kid on the canadian tour. Gave him one and one in a nassau and lost 40k. Walked out to his Escalade and brought back 40k and went home. Game was set up by a bookie who lives in OC. True story.

Reply Report comment
- joro
  
  Apr 3, 2017 at 11:42 am
  
  Aren’t you special.
  
  Reply Report comment
Johnnylongballz

Apr 1, 2017 at 3:59 am

2 Million is to Phil as 50 bucks is to me. Why did I read this, and why am I commenting????

Reply Report comment
Mr Muira

Apr 1, 2017 at 1:28 am

Old news that we already knew, move on.

Reply Report comment
Jack

Apr 1, 2017 at 12:40 am

Anyone really dumb enough to think that Phil only gambled 1.95 million? Phil has changed sponsors to have gambling debts nearly 10X that large paid off. That’s how he got to Callaway. But that’s his business.

Reply Report comment
MuskieCy

Apr 1, 2017 at 12:14 am

Phil Mickelson stole from investors who didn’t have the inside information.

He paid the SEC enough so he didn’t have to testify in court.

It would be very difficult to be in the Witness Protection Program and play the PGA Tour.

Reply Report comment
MuskieCy

Apr 1, 2017 at 12:10 am

Phil Mickelson admitted using insider information. That is stealing from legitimate investors.

He paid off the SEC so no court testimony was required.

It would be very hard to be in the Witness Protection Program and play the PGA Tour.

Reply Report comment
- BB
  
  Apr 1, 2017 at 5:51 am
  
  Witness Protection Program? Yeah, no one knows what Phil looks like. He would just blend in with the upper middle-class suburbanites.
  
  Reply Report comment
matt_bear

Mar 31, 2017 at 12:54 pm

Phil is apex predator status. He plays for meaning. He needs action. I understand him. $2 million is nothing if you’re making $40+ a year. From interviews and his past history it appears that he takes care of his family, so I doubt the gambling is an issue.

Reply Report comment
- McPickens
  
  Mar 31, 2017 at 2:08 pm
  
  nailed it
  
  Reply Report comment
- S Hitter
  
  Mar 31, 2017 at 8:31 pm
  
  Yeah. It’s not like he’s texting his bookies during the round or summin’ lmao
  
  Reply Report comment
- MuskieCy
  
  Mar 31, 2017 at 11:46 pm
  
  Yep, only wagering 2.5% of his gross annual income on a silly golf thing. Nothing desperate or sad about that.
  
  How about 7.5% of net income? To a well known fixer.
  
  Think any “oh that’s Phil being Phil” stupid stuff was stroke shaving? Point shaving always occurs on unexplained mistakes to insure betting outcomes.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - matt_bear
    
    Apr 1, 2017 at 10:44 pm
    
    He wouldn’t point shave because his #1 priority is winning.
    
    Reply Report comment
Bob Chipeska

Mar 31, 2017 at 12:24 pm

Is he stealing from or harming others to pay off his gambling debts? No? Then it is nobody’s f***** business.

Reply Report comment
- S Hitter
  
  Mar 31, 2017 at 8:32 pm
  
  We thought we got rid of youse for good you worthless piece of s……
  
  Reply Report comment
- MuskieCy
  
  Mar 31, 2017 at 11:53 pm
  
  He is stealing from investors who didn’t have the inside information.
  
  He paid off his gambling debt, $1.9M and now has paid the SEC $1.95M to keep his sorry ass from testifying against Walters.
  
  It would be hard to be a a PGA Tour player and in the Witness Protection Program at the same time. Just ask PM.
  
  Reply Report comment
- MuskieCy
  
  Mar 31, 2017 at 11:59 pm
  
  Phil Mickleson stole from investors who didn’t have the same insider information. He paid off the SEC so he didn’t have to testify in court against Walters.
  
  It would be tough to play on the PGA Tour and participate in the Witness Protection Program.
  
  Reply Report comment
- joro
  
  Apr 3, 2017 at 11:47 am
  
  You are right, me too, and of course you, so what is your goal in life? Hope it is being the stupidest cause you are very good at it. Congratulations and Have a nice day. ha ha ha ha ha
  
  Reply Report comment

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News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

12 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

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Why do we use it?

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

2 days ago

May 12, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Scottie Scheffler leads the betting ahead of the second major championship of the year, with the World Number One a +345 favorite to get his hands on a second PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy who won the Masters back in April is a +800 shot to complete half of the calendar slam at Aronimink Golf Club this week, while Jordan Spieth can be backed at +5900 to become a career grand slam winner.

Here is the full betting board for the 2026 PGA Championship courtesy of DraftKings.

Scottie Scheffler +345 – (Check 0ut his WITB here)

Rory McIlroy +800 – (Check out his WITB here)

Jon Rahm +1300
Cameron Young +1500
Bryson DeChambeau +1700
Xander Schauffele +1850
Matt Fitzpatrick +1950
Ludvig Aberg +2000
Tommy Fleetwood +2600
Collin Morikawa +3500
Brooks Koepka +3900
Justin Rose +4300
Russell Henley +4600
Si Woo Kim +4700
Justin Thomas +4800
Robert MacIntyre +5300
Patrick Cantlay +5300
Viktor Hovland +5400
Tyrrell Hatton +5500
Jordan Spieth +5900
Sam Burns +6000
Hideki Matsuyama +6200
Adam Scott +6400
Rickie Fowler +7000
Chris Gotterup +7400
Patrick Reed +7400
Min Woo Lee +7800
Ben Griffin +8000
Sepp Straka +8400
Shane Lowry +9000
Akshay Bhatia +9200
Maverick McNealy +9200
Joaquin Niemann +9200
Jake Knapp +9200
Jason Day +9600
Kurt Kitayama +10000
J.J. Spaun +10000
Harris English +10500
Nicolai Hojgaard +11000
Gary Woodland +11000
David Puig +11000
Michael Thorbjornsen +12000
Jacob Bridgeman +12000
Keegan Bradley +12500
Corey Conners +14000
Alex Fitzpatrick +15000
Sungjae Im +15500
Sahith Theegala +15500
Harry Hall +15500
Alex Noren +16000
Thomas Detry +16500
Marco Penge +16500
Kristoffer Reitan +17000
Alex Smalley +17000
Wyndham Clark +17500
Sam Stevens +17500
Keith Mitchell +17500
Daniel Berger +18500
Ryan Gerard +20000
Nick Taylor +20000
Rasmus Hojgaard +21000
Dustin Johnson +21000
Pierceson Coody +23000
Aaron Rai +24000
Jordan Smith +24000
Angel Ayora +24000
Bud Cauley +25000
Matt McCarty +26000
Jayden Schaper +26000
Brian Harman +27000
Taylor Pendrith +27000
Ryan Fox +27000
J.T. Poston +27000
Cameron Smith +29000
Ryo Hisatsune +29000
Michael Kim +29000
Max Homa +29000
Denny McCarthy +29000
Tom McKibbin +30000
Rico Hoey +32000
Matt Wallace +32500
Ricky Castillo +33000
Haotong Li +33000
Michael Brennan +34000
Max Greyserman +36000
Stephan Jaeger +37500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +37500
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +39000
Aldrich Potgieter +40000
Andrew Novak +42000
Patrick Rodgers +42500
Daniel Hillier +42500
Max McGreevy +46000
Billy Horschel +48000
Chris Kirk +48000
Ian Holt +49000
Casey Jarvis +49000
William Mouw +50000
Steven Fisk +50000
John Parry +50000
Nico Echavarria +52500
Garrick Higgo +52500
John Keefer+55000
Matthias Schmid +57500
Austin Smotherman +57500
Sami Valimaki +60000
Andrew Putnam +60000
Lucas Glover +62500
Daniel Brown +62500
Jhonattan Vegas +75000
Emiliano Grillo +80000
Mikael Lindberg +85000
Adrien Saddier +100000
Bernd Wiesberger +100000
Elvis Smylie +110000
Stewart Cink +130000
Kota Kaneko +130000
David Lipsky +150000
Chandler Blanchet +150000
Andy Sullivan +150000
Joe Highsmith +180000
Adam Schenk +200000
Travis Smyth +200000
Davis Riley +225000
Martin Kaymer +400000
Brian Campbell +400000
Padraig Harrington +450000
Kazuki Higa +450000
Jordan Gumberg +450000
Ryan Vermeer +500000
Austin Hurt +500000
Tyler Collet +500000
Timothy Wiseman +500000
Shaun Micheel +500000
Y.E. Yang +500000
Michael Block+500000
Mark Geddes+500000
Luke Donald+500000
Bryce Fisher+500000
Jimmy Walker +500000
Jason Dufner +500000
Jesse Droemer +500000
Jared Jones +500000
Garrett Sapp +500000
Francisco Bide +500000
Zach Haynes +500000
Paul McClure+500000
Derek Berg +500000
Chris Gabriele +500000
Braden Shattuck +500000
Ben Polland +500000
Ben Kern +50000

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site for the second major of 2026: The PGA Championship from Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The tournament’s location, just outside Philadelphia, and its status as a major championship mean GolfWRXers are in for a treat: WITBs from a strong field, custom gear celebrating the PGA Championship, and the rich culture of the City of Brotherly Love — we have noted a relative absence of cheesesteak-themed items thus far this week, but most of the rest of the usual suspects are well represented.

Check out links to all our photos below.