Phil Mickelson Talks To Pat McAfee About LIV & Ryder Cup

Matt Adams reacts to Phil Mickelson’s appearance on the Pat McAfee Show where he spoke about LIV, return on investment, and plans for Lefty to be the United States Ryder Cup Captain.

Phil Mickelson was on Pat mcafe show on ESPN Pat McAfee a former NFL player he hosts a show that is wildly popular where he is surrounded by experts in the World of Sport and specifically in the world of football but when it comes to golf I don’t expect that Pat McAfee will

Be an expert but because of the platform because of who he is because it’s on ESPN you’re going to be able to get the likes of Phil Mickelson and as I’ve mentioned to you previously Phil mikkelson is so smart he has this ability to understand what

He wants to say and in the political season they’re in right now you’ll also notice that the best of the best have the ability to answer a question that they want to answer it’s not necessarily always the question that they get asked but there is the the element of well I

Want to I want to start with some courtesy as to the interview that’s a matter of respect right but then I want to go down this particular road so the first thing that I want you to see at the start of this interview is the way that you could tell that Phil Mickelson

Was processing what he was asked and how he turned that into the answer that he wanted to make if I had to summarize the question from Pat McAfee I believe what he was trying to ask in this question was what is the ROI plan for live what

Is the long-term plan of how and where and when you can expect a return on the money that has cost to set up everything they have so far when we have the ability to control the product meaning uh Liv knows what they are selling and you know what you’re buying as a sponsor

We are now integrating golf on a global scale and we’re going to different countries and utilizing tourism budgets to get us there so the reason we’re going to Hong Kong is they are paying an exorbitant amount of money to bring professional golf at the highest level there and they’re using the tourism

Budget to do that we were not supposed to go back to Singapore this year and then the tourism board at Singapore gets involved and I’m talking tens of millions not just a million or two so when we started out at Livia we had to pay for sites because it was

Controversial and there were threats against us not to be involved with us and so forth but now these countries are using tourism dollars to get us to go there because of the impact we’re having on their on their economy and so uh it’s co it’s as much to cover the entire

Purse so to not see this opportunity is uh shortsighted we this is an area of of uh monary opportunity that we’ve never had in golf because we’ve never controlled the product and be able to sell something tangible there’s too much uncertainty so will it be profitable I

Think it’s going be profitable a lot sooner than than you think especially as we start working together all professional golf uh and we stop having these uh kind of threats and trying to suppress our product and our TV opportunities and our sponsors when we start working together as we are

Starting to and I think John ROM signing is really being used as a bridge to bring these sides together realizing that live isn’t going away that this is going to be a staple and that if we compete we’re going to be competing against uh each other for television uh

Dollars and sponsorship dollars and so forth rather than working together and to to do create the best product for the fans and as well as sponsors and the best opportunities for the players so we’re starting to work together John ROM’s been a huge impus in this and this

Is going to open up markets just like I mentioned tourism not to mention uh Global uh companies that are outside the US on a on a that are very large that want to get involved uh and use golf as a way to Bringing clients together and promote their brand so there there’s incredible

Opportunities it will be profitable very quickly and building equity in a brand uh and bringing a team aspect although it’s difficult to see right now because golf has been an individual sport for hundreds of years or not hundreds but you know many many years at least 100

Plus thousand it’s hard to see this transition and this change and and and the benefits of this but in the big picture again what I also see is like a team let’s say is an opportunity to help young players that don’t have access to the same type of support system that’s

Necessary to be successful by that I mean this there’s a lot of great young players that don’t have access to the proper physical training or the proper instruction or the proper facilities needed to be their best and as a team owner let’s say with High Flyers years

Down the road 5 10 years I’ll have a high Flyers Golf Course facility that I’ll have world class Fitness training world class Physical Therapy world class instruction and I will be able to bring in many young players and give them access to this training and what will I

Benefit from it as a as as an owner of the team I’ll have first Rider refusal so when they go out and they become a great player and they want to they’re winning Majors winning tournaments I’ll have the first VAR refusal to sign him to my team but I’ll be able to bring

Dozens of young players in all right so that was Phil Mickelson speaking to Pat McAfee and again courtesy of his show and ESPN and I thought it was fascinating at least from the perspective of it gave us a glimpse and a considerable one at that into and

How Phil Mickelson sees this all playing out in years from now he spoke specifically about how he said we’re all starting to work together I’m presuming what he’s talking about there is down the road all of golf’s made your tours coming together with some common goals

As to how things can work out uh he did speak specifically and mentioned it as such that John ROM signing with Liv has been a huge shift as well it seems to me at least is a huge shift in terms of mindset so from the perspective of for

Example on a weekend and you’re trying to figure out what you’re going to watch and when and you know me I always say that golf is a buffet so I love that when we have times that tournaments are being played like we had this weekend where it was the Dubai Invitational in

The morning and I was up in the middle of the night watching it right into the morning and then later on in the evening we got to watch the finish of the Sony Open which we’ll have more on coming up in the show today as well I hope that

Happens a lot because then you have these opportunities to watch and if you have that opportunity with the likes of John RAM and Moore these huge stars on live will you be drawn to watch it now but I thought the vision from Phil was the thing that really caught me there

That I thought particularly stood out there was another piece that really stood out in his interview as well and to this part he was asked about being a captain for the United States side in the Ryder Cup it was pretty much kind of the worst kept secret at the time that

Phil Mickelson was slated to be the captain for the United States Ryder Cup team when the Ryder Cup was competed which will be the next Ryder Cup in New York at Beth Page black but here was Phil’s response as to the prospects of the same I’ve had 12 13 opportunities to be a

Part of the Ryder Cup uh 12 as a player one as a Vice Captain and I’ve loved every minute of it and cherish those moments and those life experiences I don’t feel I’m the right guy to be involved with the team because I’m a very divisive uh character right now if

You will and uh I understand that that the players on the PJ tour there’s a lot of hostilities towards me and I don’t feel I’d be the best leader for them uh going forward I think that as a rder c Cup captain you have to be kind of a

Unifier and have these relationships uh solidified and somebody that um you know you you want to follow and right now uh I’ve been very divisive and I and I’m okay with that I knew that was going to be the case I knew the next couple of

Year that it was going to take a couple of years and that I was going to take a lot of hits and and a lot of divisiveness but I believe that it is in the best interest of the game of golf to present it a different way to a younger

Crowd and to try to stop a problem that is coming up quickly which is the age demographic of our fans I also believe that it’s going to be a better thing for the professional itself to um to some of the the the things behind the scenes I

Don’t need to get into the details of of the pay structure and the the the rights of the players and so forth I think those are going to be solved and going forward and this is a product that brings a different element with team and so forth that i’ I’ve really believe in

And so I knew I was going to take some hits going forward I’m okay with that and as a divisive individual I don’t think I’m the best unifier going forward uh for the Ryder Cup and that’s that’s fine because I’ve had so many great memories with it it’s it’s time for

Other people to to be able to create their own memories opportunities and life experiences that the writer cup provides fascinating comments from Phil Michelson there relative to his role in the Ridder cup or lack of role with the United States side moving forward it showed me tremendous amount of

Self-awareness on the part of Phil Mickelson in terms of where he fits right now I still have to believe though and it’s not just with Phil but for a number of the players that when they decided to commit to live I don’t think that they expected that the rest of the

Golf so-called ecosystem to use the phraseology that they like to use was going to shut down opportunities for players whether it be through world golf rankings or just being uh one that you could look to as a captain’s pick would be so hard to get so I think that

Probably was something that surprised them along the way and it may be something as the turbulent Waters of of G’s future maybe are settling down we shall see if that takes place and I’ll be very curious how it manifests itself in that which lies ahead