Phil Mickelson won’t be returning to the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The six-time major champion confirmed, after he shot 3-under-par 69 in the first round at Detroit Golf Club, that he won’t return to the PGA Tour tournament after an article was published this week about a $500,000 wager he was cheated out of more than 20 years ago.
Mickelson, the reigning PGA champion, was highly critical of the article in the Detroit News. He said he did not feel appreciated for arranging his busy tournament schedule in order to play in Detroit, which marked his first tournament in Michigan since the 2008 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills.
“It was so much effort for me to be here and to have that type of unnecessary attack,” he said. “Not like I care. It happened liked twentysomething years ago. But it’s just the lack of appreciation. Yeah, I don’t see that happening. I don’t see me coming back. Not that I don’t love the people here. They have been great. But not with that type of thing happening.”
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Mickelson said he normally takes time off after the U.S. Open. But he has played two consecutive weeks since Torrey Pines. He played last week at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut, and said he wanted to play this week to support Detroit’s third-year event, its sponsor and the local community. He added that “people have been terrific” at the tournament this week.
“I usually take a couple weeks off after the U.S. Open,” he said. “But I really liked what Rocket Mortgage has really tried to do with this community and get involved. And I wanted to, I felt like as the PGA champion I would be able to bring some value and maybe help the tournament out. And I thought that, I feel that (Detroit News reporter) Rob Snell made an article this week that was very opportunistic and selfish and irresponsible.
“I just, I was looking at some ways that my foundation might be able to get involved. And when you have a divisive voice like that, you can’t bring people together, it’s very hard to bring people together. And that needs to change because the people here are great, but when that’s your voice it’s hard to, it’s hard for me or somebody to come in and bring other people and bring other entities involved to help out because you’re constantly being torn down, as opposed to brought together and built up.”
Mickelson initially said he would not return to the Rocket Mortgage Classic in a tweet during an afternoon rain delay.
The News’ article published this week detailed Mickelson’s ties to Don DeSeranno, a Las Vegas bookie from Grosse Pointe. DeSeranno allegedly cheated Mickelson out of $500,000 according to federal court documents from the 2007 racketeering trial of Jack Giacalone. Mickelson was not accused of any wrongdoing but took to Twitter soon after the article was published Tuesday to complain.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
