American golf star Phil Mickelson will not be playing the Masters in Augusta for the first time in almost 30 years after the fuss surrounding his statements about Saudi Arabia and the PGA.
An update to the entry list on Monday (local time) added the six-time Major winner to the list of past tournament winners who will miss Georgia (April 7-10).
Since 1995, Mickelson had always been there.
Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion, described the Saudis as "scary motherfuckers" in an interview.
Freely translated as "terrifying bastards". When this became public, the 51-year-old apologized profusely on social media for his statements and announced a longer break. It is unclear whether Mickelson will be at the PGA Championship in Tulsa/Oklahoma in May will defend title.
In a conversation with Alan Shipnuck, who has written a book about the golf star that will be published in May, Mickelson talked, among other things, about the planned new tournament series in the Gulf, financed by Saudi billions, in which he wanted to participate.
In it, Mickelson repeatedly criticized the human rights situation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but also the PGA.
Shipnuck published the statements in an article for the website firepitcollective.com, Mickelson said they were made public without his consent.
It was a confidential conversation.
"I didn't expect it to be taken out of context and leaked without my consent," Mickelson said.
And the Saudi Golf League?
The consortium behind the idea, LIV Golf Investments, is said to have lured the big names of the PGA with amounts in the hundreds of millions, but after initial interest, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson recently switched back.
The ambitious project is currently on hold, the players are playing on the PGA Tour as usual.
Mickelson won the Masters in 2004, 2006 and 2010.