Phil Mickelson makes statement, will join other mostly mediocre golfers in LIV Golf’s first event

Phil is back for the love of the money. Wait, we mean for the love of the game.

Phil Mickelson is back.

One of the greatest golfers of all time announced Monday that he will return to the game for what he loves the most – money.

Well, he said in his official statement that he’s coming back for a new challenge and competition and growing the game but in reality he’s coming back to pad his bank account from a golf league that is financially funded by a Saudi Arabian government that executed 81 people just this past March.

Mickelson, who has been in hiding since making some explosive remarks about the PGA Tour and LIV Golf back in February, will be playing this in this weekend’s LIV Golf debut tournament in London. The tournament will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, which says a lot about the state of this new league.

Here’s Phil’s statement:

He’ll reportedly be making a lot of money in the process:

Mickelson said in that lengthy statement that he still plays to play in the majors, so it will be interesting to see if he makes an appearance in the U.S. Open next week.

Mickelson did win the PGA Championship last year but skipped this year’s tournament without making his own official statement on why the defending champion wouldn’t be playing, which was totally classless.

For now, though, Mickelson joins a list of other mostly mediocre golfers in a new league that is funded by dirty money. Dustin Johnson is the biggest name and is still a very good golfer but the other big names – Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia among others – are guys just looking to make a bunch of easy money in the final years of their careers.

If you need any more proof that this league is full of mediocrity, look at the five other golfers who were added to the London lineup on Monday: Itthipat Buranatanyarat, Viraj Madappa, Travis Smyth, Ian Snyman and Kevin Yuan.

Yeah, that’s all very far from exciting.

The golf world had reactions to Phil’s announcement: