Phil Mickelson: Never a Ryder Cup captain? Not in 2025, at least

Phil Mickelson was once thought to be a lock to be the Ryder Cup captain when the matches were played at Bethpage Black (first scheduled for 2024 and now in 2025). Now, though, there’s a question if Mickelson will ever be Ryder Cup captain after his move to LIV Golf. Mickelson told Pat McAfee that he knows he’s not the right man for the job now. But what about someday?

Is Phil Mickelson ever going to be the writer Cup captain we don’t know that for sure and we don’t know what the future holds but we know he’s not the man for 2025 and Phil Mickelson said so himself I’m Ryan bie with golf Newsnet thanks for tuning in today today we’re

Going to talk about some comments from Phil Mickelson about his future as the Ridder Cup captain on the US side and specifically how it relates to the next Ridder Cup in 2025 at Beth Page black in New York many years ago when this was first announced that Beth paage black

Was going to host a wrer cup so many people myself included figured Phil was a shoe in for this job he’s been a riter cup stalwart for the United States for the better part of three decades and over 20 plus years being a part of this competition he hasn’t had the best

Record but he’s been a key part of it and many people expected him to get the job as captain of the US Ridder cup side whenever this event happened it was originally scheduled for 2024 because of the pandemic got moved to 2025 and at the time I I think when that

Move happened people still figured melson would eventually get this job but things have changed in the last couple of years melson’s moved on to live golf and he’s upset a lot of people in the process even though there are other players who move to live golf and were a

Little bit more quiet about it but still caused part of the upheaval that’s happening in the game right now and ultimately mikkelson has been somewhat of a scapegoat in in many ways for what has happened between the PGA Tour and Liv Golf and that has bled into how he’s

Considered by his peers on the PGA tour a select group with them that get to decide who gets to be the next writer Cup captain and in 2025 we don’t know who that’s going to be on the US side but Michelson knows it’s not him so

Appearing on the Pat McAfee show on ESPN Mickelson was asked about the subject and he was pretty clear about it he said quote I don’t feel I’m the right guy to be involved with the team because I’m a very divisive character right now I understand the players on the PGA tour

There’s a lot of hostilities toward me end quote and he’s right I mean nichelson knows he is not particularly well-liked on the PGA tour side of things one of the biggest kind of holdups in the negotiations between the PGA Tour the DP World Tour and the Saudi public investment fund which owns live

Is is about how to treat players who went to live from the PGA Tour and how to either welcome them back or punish them or something in between and mikkelson’s right at the top of that list there are a lot of players who hold grudges against mikkelson because he

Took the money he went to live golf he recruited players he helped precipitate a lot of the things that are happening here the reality is though that there would have been another Mickelson there could have been another player who would have done very similar things if it were

Not for mikkelson even though he is quoted as saying all kinds of different things about this process that have gotten him into kind of hot water with sponsors and players and peers and other folks folks but he has been the one that said this is a kind of once in

A-lifetime opportunity to change how the PGA Tour operates in the end Phil was right about that the PGA Tour is changing how it operates it changed dramatically and it’s still going to change more but despite being part of the Catalyst for that change and maybe a significant part of it that doesn’t mean

He automatically gets the right to come back and be on the same track he was on before all this live stuff happened ultimately you have players who are on the writer cup committee who work together to determine who will be the next writer Cup captain and those players clearly have influence over who

Will be Vice captains who will be future captains and those guys are Tiger Woods and Davis Love III and Steve shrier and Jim furick and to a degree Stuart sink and Fred Couples and and a lot of those guys have been pretty darn vocal about how they feel about live which means

That’s going to bleed into how they feel about players who went to live whether that’s a younger player whether that’s a middle you know closer to middle-age player like Dustin Johnson whether that’s a player that’s similar to Age to them like Phil Mickelson that’s going to change how they think about those

Players and how they’re involved in the writer cup in the future the big question for me is if there is an agreement and when that happens between the PGA Tour DP World Tour the public investment fund strategic Sports Group whoever winds up being involved in this

Will the PGA of America get involved and try to encourage a coming back together at least on the American side of parties that have been in factions for the last couple of years based on the tour that they play I don’t I don’t know if that’s

Going to be the case but the DP World Tour has a huge commercial interest in the Ryder Cup they own the biggest portion of Ryder Cup Europe and so if they’re bringing that asset to this new company deal in a way the PGA Tour has an ownership stake in the Rider cup and

That will change dramatically potentially how this competition is viewed how it works how it’s monetized there could be some significant changes on the horizon including who ultimately gets the opportunity to Captain both sides we know Henrik Stenson lost the opportunity last time around because he signed with Liv golf that went to Luke

Donald Luke Donald wound up being a great Captain over in Rome he almost immediately got the job for Beth pagee black to get the rare opportunity to go backto back home and away in this banial competition when whenever this agreement is settled whenever that looks like will people

Like Stenson Ian polter Lee Westwood on the European side Sergio Garcia ultimately get the opportunity to Captain their side and on the American side will players like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson and Brooks kka ultimately get that opportunity if they wish to pursue it I don’t know and I I

Don’t think Phil knows either but I think he has probably resigned himself to the fact that there’s an opportunity or a potential situation where he turns into this generation’s Larry Nelson Larry Nelson had a perfect record in a Ryder Cup won what three major three us opens and never got the opportunity to

Be Captain because he got passed over for Lanny Watkins and then it never came back to him this may be happening to Phil now where he gets passed over in this particular spot where so many people thought he would be the captain and may never get it again because once

You get into your 50s and certainly into your 60s it becomes much more difficult to get this job particularly in a time where both sides are looking to have younger captains who are still in touch with players currently playing on their respective tours and if you don’t have

Those relationships it can be awfully difficult to make a case to be Captain so that may be the case for Phil ultimately but we’ll see what happens and what the future holds