Phil Mickelson responded fiercely to allegations about his marriage, including claims that his wife, Amy, forced him to leave a prestigious golf club over his alleged infidelity.
The dramatic accusations against Phil, 56, were made in a story written by journalist Alan Shipnuck for Skratch Golf, published on Friday, June 26.
“Mrs. Mickelson is not a public figure,” a spokesperson for Phil said in a statement to Us Weekly on Thursday, July 2. “She did not choose this spotlight, and there was no legitimate journalistic reason to drag her into it. Shipnuck nevertheless gave anonymous sources a platform to speculate about her marriage, her motives and decisions they had no firsthand knowledge of.”
The statement continued, “Shipnuck’s reporting suggests that Mrs. Mickelson orchestrated Mr. Mickelson’s departures from golf clubs. That is false. Mr. Mickelson has never been forced by his wife or by any golf club to surrender his membership. Those decisions were his alone.”
Phil’s spokesperson argued Shipnuck relied on an “anonymous source” without any “firsthand knowledge” while reporting that Amy was responsible for Phil leaving the Madison Club in La Quinta, California, after she found out Phil was allegedly cheating on her in a condo near the club.
“The source’s personal assumption about her involvement is presented as fact, and that unsupported speculation has since been repeated by other media outlets as though it were established truth. It is not,” the statement added.
Shipnuck spoke to “multiple members and employees of the Madison Club” about Phil’s abrupt departure in 2021.
“He wasn’t necessarily kicked out,” a senior member of the Madison Club’s management team claimed. “It was more of a demand by Amy. We got a call from [Phil’s and Amy’s] wealth management firm: ‘We need Phil’s place sold, gone, right now. Phil will no longer be a member at the Madison Club.’”
Amy and Phil have been married since 1996 and share three children: daughters Amanda, born in 1999, and Sophia, born in 2001, and son Evan, born in 2003.
Shipnuck’s story makes other damning allegations against Phil, including a claim that he propositioned the then-wife of golfer Pat Perez after showing her an allegedly naked photo of himself in 2015.
“Alan Shipnuck’s journalistic stock-in-trade is the anonymously-sourced drive-by shooting, heavy on implication but unsupported by any on-the-record sources,” the statement issued by Phil’s spokesperson said. “Shipnuck has spent years attempting to position himself as the definitive authority on Phil Mickelson. This story demonstrates precisely why he is not.”
Skratch Golf editor-in-chief Ben Boskovich called the statement “bizarre,” saying they gave Phil’s team an opportunity to comment on the claims three days before Shipnuck’s article was published.
In a statement to the New York Post on Wednesday, July 1, Boskovich said, “Skratch Golf stands by its reporting.”
