(Reuters) – Six-times major winner Phil Mickelson said he loves his decision of joining the Saudi-backed breakaway LIV Golf Series, which he believes is “trending upwards” while the PGA Tour will be “trending downwards”.
The LIV Golf Series, which launched in June, has lured away some of the sport’s biggest names with enormous purses while those who joined the rebel circuit are no longer eligible to participate in PGA Tour events.
Mickelson said that during his heyday, the best players in the world competed on the PGA Tour but that will never be the case again.
“I think going forward you have to pick a side. You have to pick what side do you think is going to be successful,” Mickelson told reporters at the LIV Golf Invitational Series in Jeddah on Thursday.
“I firmly believe that I’m on the winning side of how things are going to evolve and shape in the coming years for professional golf.”
Last month, the PGA Tour accused LIV Golf of using antitrust laws “as a cudgel” and undermining its contracts with players in a counterclaim to a lawsuit the Saudi-backed circuit filed.
In a lawsuit filed in August, LIV Golf, Mickelson and 10 other players accused the PGA Tour of antitrust violations.
“Until both sides sit down and have a conversation and work something out, both sides are going to continue to change and evolve,” Mickelson added.
“And I see LIV Golf trending upwards, I see the PGA TOUR trending downwards and I love the side that I’m on… I love the way they involve us and listen to us in decisions.
“It’s so inclusive, it’s so fluid that things LIV Golf is leading.”
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
