Our man Phil Mickelson has taken a drastic measure to help improve his play, which has been down lately.  He’s been fasting, according to an ESPN article published this morning.

Mickelson Loses 15 Pounds by Fasting

The fast was for six full days, and he lost a whopping 15 pounds during this fast.  He had been playing poorly since winning the AT & T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am earlier in 2019, and has missed cuts in four of his last six entries, which is highly uncharacteristic for the golf legend.

Here’s a photo screen shot of a video he uploaded to his Twitter channel where he talked about all of it.

“The last 10 days I’ve done what I call a hard reset to change and try and make things better,” said Mickelson in a video he posted on Twitter.

The 49 year old golfer dropped the extra weight by drinking exclusively water and a special coffee blend, and also doing a retreat.

Here’s to hoping the fast works, and the good old Lefty is back and better than ever in his next events. Phil, we’re rooting for you!

There has been a lot of news this week about the college admission scandal that has embroiled over 50 parents, including a few celebrities (such as Full House star Lori Loughlin and actress Felicity Huffman) who allegedly committed fraud to get their children enrolled in the college of their choice.

Allegations of the fraud include payment of bribes to cheat on proctored exams such as the SAT and ACT, as well as creating phony athlete profiles and bribing college coaches to get their kids enrolled as athletic recruits.

Mickelson Used Rick Singer’s Services

The ringleader of this whole scam is a man by the name of Rick Singer, who ran a for-profit college admissions business and used it to funnel money from the parents to the test proctors and coaches to make the enrollment happen. When it seemed like we had heard all of the celebrity names tied to Singer earlier in the week, more names have been linked to him, including Phil Mickelson.

After completing his round at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday, Mickelson was met with the expected questioning regarding his relationship with Singer, and had this to say to the assemblage of reporters (as reported on golf.com):

“We, along with thousands of other families, hired he and his company to help us guide through the college application process. We’re probably more shocked than anyone and we’ve been dealing with it the last few days, but that’s about it.”

Following his meeting the media, he also posted this message on his Twitter account:

 

Our family, along with thousands of others, used Rick Singer’s company to guide us through the college admission process. We are shocked by the revelations of these events. Obviously, we were not part of this fraud, our kids would disown us if we ever tried to interfere.

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) March 14, 2019

Our Reaction

Obviously, this is a fan site of the legend Phil Mickelson and we think this is all a bunch of bull. He has a wonderful family and talented, hard-working kids. By his own admission, he is a proud dad of how gifted and well-developed his children are. They have good grades, numerous extracurricular activities, and worldly views that have colleges fighting to get them as students.

We believe that Mickelson used Singer’s services like thousands of other parents, just (as he claimed) as a way to help them navigate the college admissions process. He has used Singer’s company for three years (he currently has a daughter who is a sophomore at Brown University) and got to know the tutors and administrative staff that got dozens of colleges on their radar and helped navigate through the confusing process.

We know a lot of people will look at this case with a bit of skepticism, as they are clouded by the stigma of his insider trading activity in the past. Let us remind you, he was cleared of any wrongdoing in that case and has strongly denied any illicit activity (just as he’s doing with this admissions scandal).

Until any definitive proof comes out that shows Mickelson was paying bribes for test-taking or admission, he is innocent until proven guilty in this. In all the other cases that made the news this week, there are wiretapped conversations and a paper trail of money being funneled. At this time, we’ve seen nothing along those lines with Phil, and believe he honestly used these services in the way he’s claimed.

The weather made him wait until Monday to close out the Pebble Beach Pro Am, but Phil Mickelson handled his business and got his 44th tour win on Monday.

Mickelson Wins Pebble Beach Pro Am on Monday

He entered the day with a three shot lead after a weather-delayed Sunday and beat out Scott Stallings and Paul Casey on the final two holes to grab his fifth win at this exact event, which put him in a tie with Mark O’Meara for the all time record for number of wins.

Shooting a 19 under 268 for the week of golf, Mickelson attempted to get his playing partner, Pau Casey, to finish the round on Sunday as the sky turned black and visibility was very poor.  Casey argued that there wasn’t enough time to finish and the two argued back and forth prior to play being stopped with only two holes left.  At this point, Stallings was already finished with his round and had finished with a 15 under par score, which had him tied with Casey at the time.

Entering Sunday’s final round, Mickelson was behind by three strokes to Casey.  He shot a 7 under par 65 to take the championship from Casey, who himself was gunning for his third career title.

It’s good to see Lefty racking up the wins and continuing his trek into the record books.  Last time I updated the blog, Phil beat Tiger in “The Match.”

Six months from now, Phil will return to this same course and shoot for his final leg of the prestigious “Career Grand Slam” when he seeks a U.S. Open Victory.

You can bet your ass we’ll be cheering for him to win that one! 

As Phil is in the twilight of his career, it’s amazing to see him playing this great of golf.  He’s won once and been runner up three times already in this early part of the season.  50 career wins is in sight, and Lefty is locked and loaded, shooting for yet another trophy for his impressive trophy case.

Until the next round – Go Lefty!

 

Two of the best to ever swing a golf club are about to go head to head this Thanksgiving week in an event aptly titled “the Match.”  Phil Mickelson vs. Tiger Woods will be televised and many side bets will be made.  Today I’ll explain what this is all about and fill you in on whats about to go down.

“The Match” Puts Phil Mickelson Versus Tiger Woods

Where else, but Las Vegas, would this event take place?  Both of these touring professionals are notorious gamblers who have huge bank accounts and even larger ego’s.  This game will include all the side bets one could ask for – and much more.  During televised PGA tour matches, there have been rumors of side bets taking place, but you’ll never see that stuff on TV.  However, that’s all about to change.

Featuring real-time oddsmaking, you’ll be able to see probabilities prior to shots that takes into consideration course-mapping information along with the players’ ShotLink data.  It’ll be comparable to watching the Poker Tour where you can see the cards each player is holding.  Let’s be honest folks, this is about Tiger vs. Phil, and money.  That’s it.

Everyone who likes to golf knows that more often than not, gambling happens.  In Europe, bookies are abundant and waiting to take your action while you sit in a pub and watch the tournament.  Soon, the USA will have legalized gambling, and some States do already, but nationally, we don’t at the time of this post.

It’s worth noting that the PGA Tour supported (and continues to support) legalized wagering.  They have a lot of angles to make money off of the gambling, which I’ll talk about in a future article as that unfolds.

Jeff Sherman of the Westgate Sportsbook and Casino recently tweeted the odds:

To Win Outright:

Tiger Woods -200
Phil Mickelson +170

Who would you take in Tiger Vs. Phil?

I’ll be back later to recap the event and let you know the FULL results.