Phil Mickelson has described his previous gambling habits as “reckless” and “embarrassing”, opening up about his troubled past after arriving in London ahead of the opening LIV Golf Invitational event.
Federal auditors investigating Mickelson’s role in an insider trading scheme found his gambling losses totalled more than $56 million from 2010 to 2014, according to an excerpt from author Alan Shipnuck’s biography on the six-time major winner.
In an interview with SI.com, Mickelson said that “hundreds of hours of therapy” had since helped him overcome his gambling addiction.
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“My gambling got to a point of being reckless and embarrassing. I had to address it,” he said.
“I’ve been addressing it for a number of years. And for hundreds of hours of therapy. I feel good where I’m at there. My family and I are and have been financially secure for some time.
“Gambling has been part of my life ever since I can remember. But about a decade ago is when I would say it became reckless. It’s embarrassing. I don’t like that people know.”
He added: “It isn’t a threat to me or my financial security. It was just a number of poor decisions… It’s the anxiety, the other things that come across with gambling off the course and addiction off the course that I really needed to address”.
Mickelson was a relief defendant in 2016 in the insider trading case that sent noted gambler Billy Walters to prison.
Walters has since been released and has said he is writing a book.
Mickelson’s annual income in 2012 — the time of the Dean Foods stock deal that netted Mickelson nearly $1 million in one week — was estimated at about $67 million.
Shipnuck also said money was largely behind his split with longtime caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay in 2017. He wrote that Mackay left Mickelson after the Memorial that year over a series of “simmering grievances,” including hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay.
Mickelson spoke as he prepares to tee off at the Centurion Club on Thursday after signing up for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational.
According to The Telegraph in London, Mickelson received $277 million up front to appear on the circuit for at least three years.
“I think that the biggest reason is when I would think about LIV Golf I found myself excited and energised to play and work hard and compete again,” Mickelson said.
“I think after doing this for 30 years, I’m excited about something new and this different format.”
Mickelson’s arrangement comfortably surpasses the reported $174m that motivated former world No.1 Dustin Johnson to leave the PGA Tour.
There are 12 other PGA Tour members in the 48-man field competing for a $28 million purse over 54 holes.
The winner will receive $5.75 million — to date the richest prize in golf.
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