Phil Mickelson remains “bullish” about the future of LIV Golf – but he has admitted his own career is coming to an end.
Mickelson, 53, has given the clearest indication yet that he is considering retirement as his form continues to deteriorate on the breakaway league.
The six-time major champion’s performances have declined ever since winning his record-breaking PGA Championship win in 2021 aged 50.
His Sunday surge to finish second at the Masters last year has since proven an anomaly, with one top-30 finish in six LIV starts this season.
And Mickelson is already looking ahead to the next chapter as his garlanded playing career draws to a close.
“I’m 53 now and my career, you know, if I’m being truthful it’s toward its end,” Mickelson told Mickelson told Bloomberg TV. “Now, I would like to help others find the same enjoyment and fulfilment that the game of golf has provided me.”
“There are moments when you are on a golf course alone and you have that solitude, or you could also be with family and friends having a good time or competing in a club championship or junior event or at the highest level and feeling that competition.
“All of that creates such fulfilment, whether you’re practising on your own or with friends. There’s so many great things about the game of golf and I would love others to experience those things.”
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The length of Mickelson’s contract at LIV is unclear. He became one of the first high-profile stars to sign a multi-year deal with Greg Norman’s start-up and is the current captain of the HyFlyers GC team.
He is also able to make his latest attempt at the career grand slam at next month’s US Open.
Mickelson, though, appears adamant that LIV will grow long after the end of his own time competing on the circuit.
“I think there’s a lot of things that are going to transpire over the next five or ten years,” he said at this week’s event in Singapore. “I’m very bullish and excited about what that means for LIV Golf.
“But there’s also a lot of uncertainty. I think the things that I do know is I think the quality of the players will continue to get better each year. I think that the ability and the sites that we move throughout the world will continue to excite players and excite fans. We’ll be going to more countries outside of the United States that really are starving for world-class professional golf, and we’ll have a lot more receptions like we had at Adelaide.
“With Singapore and the tourism department getting involved and loving the event that transpired last year and wanting us to come back, that seems to be the case right now where a lot of countries are negotiating and trying to get a LIV event there. So I see the global game of golf growing at an extremely high level.”
