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Amid backlash to his controversial comments about the new Saudi Golf League, Phil Mickelson issued an apology on Tuesday.
In a statement, Mickelson called his comments “reckless” and said he was “deeply sorry for my choice of words.”
Mickelson also seemed to indicate he would be taking a break from competitive golf.
“The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level,” his statement said. “I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”
In an upcoming unauthorized biography, Mickelson told Alan Shipnuck he wanted to use Saudi Arabia’s interest in signing top stars for its own tour to leverage the PGA Tour into giving the players more money despite the country’s history of human rights issues:
“They’re scary motherf–kers to get involved with. We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates. They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse. As nice a guy as [PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won’t do what’s right. And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage. 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.”
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