The former PGA Championship winner and current Sky Sports Golf broadcaster opened up about working with Alan Shipnuck, Phil Mickelson, and the LIV Golf Invitational Series.
Beem’s only Major win was the PGA Championship in 2002, when he famously held off a charging Tiger Woods to win the tournament by a single stroke with a final round of 68. Before this win, Beem was perhaps most well known for the book Bud, Sweat and Tees: A Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour by Alan Shipnuck. The book chronicled his rookie year on the PGA tour and the wild times of him and his caddie Steve Duplantis.
Related Articles
View this post on Instagram
Shipnuck has now written a biography of Phil Mickelson’s career titled Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar , and it hits stores tomorrow. Shipnuck set the golf world and perhaps Mickelson’s legacy ablaze in November when he released comments, allegedly made off the record, by Mickelson disparaging the Saudi Arabian government, backers of the Liv Golf Invitational Series, which had been courting Mickelson.
Beem, for one, did not seem surprised and did not hold back his feelings on Shipnuck. “I think a lot of it has to do with the author of it all. I’m not a fan,” Beem began. He went on to imply that Shipnuck uses sensationalism and exaggeration to sell books.
“…it got to the point where I’d had enough of the sensationalism of how he wrote it.” Beem said, recounting his experience with the author.
View this post on Instagram
“I don’t trust him and if I don’t trust you, then I don’t really want to have anything to do with you. I think the one thing I base my friendships on and on who I want to talk to is ‘do I trust them?’ I don’t trust Alan. It’s nothing personal, I just don’t trust what he writes.”
Switching gears, Beem went on to address Mickelson’s recent withdrawal from the PGA Championship, his ties to the LIV Golf Invitational Series, and his possible motivations for conspiring to form a super golf league outside of the PGA Tour.
“I was surprised to see him commit to it (the US PGA).” He continued, “This isn’t a place to come and get away from it all, especially if you’re Phil Mickelson, because the media is just going to roast him and ask him some pretty hard questions and he’s going to have to produce some pretty tough answers.”
In the wide-ranging conversation with GolfMagic and BoyleSports Golf Betting, Beem continued, “The PGA Tour has been really good to him over the years. If he decides to go down the LIV Series route, then that’s what he chooses. But I don’t think coming back to a major championship and having to face the press about everything that’s gone on would’ve been a great move in the first place…”If he is truly going there (Centurion), let’s face it, it’s for the money. There’s no reason why anyone who has accomplished what he has in the game should have to go there unless he either needs or wants the money.”
Mickelson hasn’t played in a tournament since January. Not long after his comments regarding Saudi Arabia were made public, Lefty released a statement touting his positive experience with the LIV Series and announcing that he would be stepping away from golf for an undisclosed amount of time.
A Statement from Phil Mickelson pic.twitter.com/2saaXIxhpu
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) February 22, 2022
The series’ first event is set to be held on June 9-11 at Centurion Golf Club in London, and we will all be waiting to see if Phil makes a dramatic return to golf on another tour or if that is simply more sensationalism.
Cover Image Via Instagram
