Phil Mickelson has made the trip to the Augusta National Golf Club every year since 1994. That won’t be the case in 2022.

Mickelson was not listed among the participants in the 2022 field on the Masters' website, and ESPN confirmed Mickelson will not compete this year.

Mickelson is one of two legacy stars whose status for the tournament had been up in the air. Tiger Woods is listed among the participants in the Masters, but he has not confirmed whether he will be playing.

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Why won’t Mickelson be in Augusta in April? Sporting News takes a look into why the lefty won’t be playing in this year’s tournament.

Why Phil Mickelson will miss the 2022 Masters

Mickelson has found himself embroiled in controversy over his PGA Tour criticism and comments he had made about the Saudi government speaking with author Alan Shipnuck about the Saudi Golf League.

When Mickelson apologized for his comments, he said he needed to take “time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”


Since making those comments, Mickelson has lost several major sponsors, including Callaway Golf, Workday, KPMG and Amstel Light. He also is no longer able to host The American Express tour event in La Quinta, California.

MORE: Phil Mickelson loses sponsors, tournament host role after comments about PGA Tour, Saudi regime

Mickelson had been one of the few supporters of the Saudi Golf League, a start-up league threatening to pull top PGA Tour golfers away for high paychecks to form a super league. In an interview with Shipnuck, Mickelson said they were “scary motherf—ers to get involved with.”

He added “they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi” and listed off concerns with their human rights track record before noting that he would consider joining the league because he viewed it as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”

Mickelson proceeded to call the PGA Tour a “dictatorship” and said the concerns for players at the top are different from those on the bottom of the “money list.”

MORE: Phil Mickelson apologizes, says Saudi Golf League comments taken ‘out of context;’ author disputes claims

“They use the top guys to make their own situation better, but the top guys don’t have a say,” Mickelson said in the interview.

He later apologized, saying he believed the records were “off-record” and “out of context and without my consent.” Shipnuck pushed back, saying that Mickelson never asked for the conversation to be off-the-record and that he later made a “half-hearted attempt at revisionist history, trying to say our talk had been a private conversation.” Shipnuck is writing a book about Mickelson titled, “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar.”

Last time Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods missed the Masters

The last time Mickelson and Woods both missed the Masters? Well, it was just at the start of Woods' career.

Woods debuted in Augusta as an amateur in 1995. The prior year, he was still working his way up to qualify for the Masters.

Mickelson also missed the 1994 Masters. He had previously appeared in both 1991 and 1993. The two first played in the same field at the Masters in 1995. Neither would miss an appearance at the Masters until Woods missed the 2014 tournament.

The Masters is set to take place from April 7-10.

Source: https://www.sportingnews.com/us/golf/news/phil-mickelson-miss-2022-masters/xanekotofvbcbrtic2brd8zw