Furious Phil Mickelson Tells Golf Reporter: Get Your Facts Straight
Mickelson Slams Golf Journalist Over PGA Tour NFT Claims
Golf legend Phil Mickelson took to social media to publicly rebuke golf journalist Dylan Dethier, accusing him of misrepresenting Mickelson’s criticisms of the PGA Tour’s handling of digital assets.
The fiery exchange erupted on December 1st when mickelson responded to Dethier’s recent column on GOLF.com,which analyzed the current state of men’s professional golf. Dethier’s piece touched on Mickelson’s recent YouTube matches, suggesting that Mickelson was leveraging the LIV Golf offseason to explore choice avenues for team golf and possibly unlock additional revenue streams.
Dethier wrote, “While Mickelson’s claims that the Tour is sitting on ‘multiple billions of dollars’ in NFTs may have been aggressive, it’s clear he’s using the freedom of a LIV offseason to play a different type of team golf and potentially unlock some extra value in the process.”
This statement ignited Mickelson’s ire. He fired back on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “Let me point out that when Ron Price testified in front of Congress he was asked how much assets does the Tour have. he said a little less than three billion. Four months later they sold a stake to SSG on a valuation of 12.5 billion. Where do you think the 9.5 billion discrepancy came from? That’s right, digital moments and NFTs. Open your eyes and get your facts straight please.”
This isn’t the first time Mickelson has publicly criticized the PGA Tour’s control over digital rights and NFTs. In 2022, he was vocal about what he perceived as the Tour’s “obnoxious greed” in monopolizing players’ media and digital rights, including their ability to monetize their own highlights.
In a revealing interview wiht Golf Digest, Mickelson argued that players should own the rights to their personal highlights and performances, rather than the PGA Tour holding exclusive control. He felt this limited players’ opportunities to explore emerging markets like nfts.
Mickelson pointed out that athletes in other leagues, such as the NBA and NFL, enjoyed greater freedom in monetizing their media moments. He argued that the PGA Tour’s control over digital assets stifled player earnings and innovation.
“it’s not public knowledge, all that goes on,” Mickelson said. “But the players don’t have access to their own media.If the Tour wanted to end any threat [from Saudi or anywhere else], they could just hand back the media rights to the players.But they would rather throw $25 million here and $40 million there than give back the roughly $20 billion in digital assets they control. Or give up access to the $50-plus million they make every year on their own media channel.”
He added, “there are many issues, but that is one of the biggest. For me personally, it’s not enough that they are sitting on hundreds of millions of digital moments. They also have access to my shots, access I do not have. They also charge companies to use shots I have hit. And when I did ‘The Match’—there have been five of them—the Tour forced me to pay them $1 million each time. For my own media rights. That type of greed is, to me, beyond obnoxious.”
mickelson’s latest outburst highlights the ongoing tension between players and the PGA tour over control of digital assets and the potential for players to capitalize on their own brand and likeness in the evolving landscape of professional golf.
Mickelson’s NFT outburst: A Deeper Look at Player vs. PGA Tour Tensions
Phil Mickelson isn’t known for holding back, and his recent public clash with golf journalist Dylan Dethier over PGA Tour NFT practices underscores a simmering tension between players and the institution.
While Dethier’s GOLF.com column suggested Mickelson’s recent YouTube matches aimed to explore alternative revenue streams, Mickelson fired back, citing Ron Price’s Congressional testimony about the PGA Tour’s assets. He argued that a significant discrepancy between the reported assets and the valuation after selling a stake to SSG pointed to the value of digital moments and NFTs.
This isn’t a new battleground for Mickelson. In a 2022 Golf Digest interview, he accused the PGA Tour of ”obnoxious greed” for monopolizing player media and digital rights, hindering their ability to capitalize on NFTs and their likeness.
Mickelson highlighted the disparity between the PGA Tour’s control over player media and the freedom enjoyed by athletes in leagues like the NBA and NFL. He argued that returning media rights to players would effectively neutralize any threats from rival golf leagues, claiming the Tour prioritizes substantial payouts to maintain control over these lucrative assets.
Mickelson’s frustration extends to the Tour profiting from his own performance highlights. He revealed that the Tour charged him $1 million per “Match” event for using his own media rights, a practice he deems “obnoxious greed.”
This clash highlights a basic question: who owns and profits from a golfer’s digital footprint? As the world of sports increasingly embraces NFTs and digital assets, the Mickelson-PGA Tour showdown could have far-reaching implications for player empowerment and the future of professional golf.