MICKELSON: LIV Golf must continue its ‘evolution’ after an ‘amazing’ first year

Image credit: Idris Erba/LIV Golf

Legend golfer Phil Mickelson feels LIV Golf must continue its ‘evolution’ after a ‘beyond amazing’ start in it’s first year.

The six-time major champion suggested part of that evolution could see a move to 72-holes, if needs must, to satisfy Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) criteria.

Mickelson summed up the progress made on the new start-up tour saying: “It has all happened so fast and everything got moved up a year because we had so much demand with so many top players coming over that we ended up moving the league and the team aspect up a year.

“So there's a lot happening. There's a lot of transition. There's a lot of kind of figuring things out as we go. But to think that we are where we are today in less than a year, it's beyond amazing.”

When asked what was still missing from the tour and what he thought needed to happen over the next couple of years Mickelson brought up OWGR, but was keen to stress the new league was in a good place to pivot where needed.

Mickelson said: “Evolution. We'll just simply evolve, and when we see something that can be better, we have the fluidity to make the change and make it better.

“I don't know, I mean, there's a lot of specifics that we could look at and say, gosh, do we need to go to 72 holes to get World (Golf) Ranking points or what do we need to do to be the best product but really it comes down to we provide the best product to fans, to sponsors.

“And also, this is a question that LIV has been asking that I haven't been asked in the last 32 years: How can we make this the best experience for the professionals, as well, and that's what's exciting for us as players to be a part of this league.”

When pressed further during the LIV Golf press conference whether he thought the tour NEEDS to shift its early model to 72-holes Mickelson said: “Those are things we can talk about and again we have the fluidity to make changes if it's in the best interests of the players or the league or for the fans or for the sponsors. But I don't feel that that's a pressing need right now, otherwise it would have been changed.

“But again, great thing about this league is its fluidity and its ability to adapt and make changes and do things quickly to make things better.”