🚨 Phil Mickelson Has Been Removed From His Golf Club Over Alleged “Inappropriate Contact” With A Female Employee
Phil Mickelson has reportedly been booted from The Farms Club in San Diego after allegedly making inappropriate physical contact with a female employee. The club took the allegations seriously enough to remove him. His spokesperson’s official response: it was a “misunderstanding.” (source)
Let’s talk about what “misunderstanding” is doing in that sentence. A woman reported inappropriate physical contact. The club — which would normally bend over backwards to keep a famous member happy — removed him anyway. That’s not a clerical error. That’s an institution deciding the allegation was credible enough to act on. The PR framing of “misunderstanding” is working extremely hard here, and it deserves to be named for what it is.
Phil’s last few years have been a lot. The gambling allegations. The Saudi money defense. The Sports Illustrated profile that read like a controlled demolition of his own reputation. Every time there’s a new story, the spokesperson script runs the same play: mischaracterization, context, looking forward. At some point that playbook stops being damage control and starts being a pattern that manages rather than addresses. The woman at the center of this deserves to be taken seriously. Full stop.
The Farms Club carries on. Phil, reportedly, does not.
🤔 LIV Golf Is Now Counting On “Prominent Australians” To Save The Day
Scott O’Neil is staying positive!! Despite reports that the Saudi Public Investment Fund — the ENTIRE FINANCIAL BACKBONE of LIV Golf — may be done writing checks, O’Neil told media this week he’s optimistic about new investors. The current leading hope: Cam Smith making calls to unnamed “prominent Australians.” (source)
For context: LIV has burned through BILLIONS in sovereign wealth fund money to poach players, build a tour from scratch, and produce television that nobody watched. The backup plan is Cam Smith’s contacts list. Greg Norman is presumably sitting by his phone in a floral shirt. “Prominent Australians” is doing extraordinary work as a financial rescue strategy for a multi-billion dollar sports operation.
💸 The LPGA Is Playing For $3.3 Million This Week While The PGA Tour Plays For $9.8 Million Next Door
The Dow Championship purse is $3.3M, the RBC Canadian Open is $9.8M, and we’ve been told the pay gap is basically closed for three years now. (source)
⛵ Callaway Made A Nautical-Themed Golf Ball Because The U.S. Open Is Near Boats
The third limited-edition Chrome Tour of 2026 features FOUR BOAT-INSPIRED DESIGNS because the U.S. Open is at Shinnecock Hills, which is near the Hamptons, which is near water, which apparently means your golf ball now needs an anchor on it. This is the Augusta florals → Philly pretzels → nautical collection pipeline completing its arc. We are fully in the era of golf balls as seasonal home décor. (source)
Genuinely curious what the Halloween US Open limited edition looks like. Asking for a friend who will absolutely buy it.
🗑️ Quick hit: TaylorMade Made A Golf Ball Alignment Stripe You Can Rotate Out Of Sight
The new TP5 Performance Stripe is a partial alignment aid designed to be hidden by rotating the ball away from you — which is either thoughtful design or a quiet admission that alignment stripes are mostly a placebo we’ve all agreed to pretend works. (source)
🏆 Nelly Korda Won The U.S. Women’s Open And We Should Actually Talk About It
Nelly Korda won her first U.S. Women’s Open, and it genuinely deserves more than a quick mention. She is the most dominant player in women’s golf right now — World No. 1, generational ball-striking, multiple majors already to her name — but this specific title had kept getting away from her. (source)
Here’s the real take: Korda winning the U.S. Open right now matters beyond the trophy itself. Women’s golf is in a legitimately interesting competitive moment — the depth at the top of the LPGA is elite, the quality of play is elite, and Korda is the kind of player who, in a different media and infrastructure environment, would be a mainstream sports star. She has the game for it. The ecosystem around her just hasn’t caught up. This win should be a top sports story. It mostly won’t be, and that’s the actual story. Worth sitting with that.
🏛️ Trump Wants To Redesign D.C.’s Historic Public Golf Course. Preservationists Are Not Having It.
East Potomac Golf Links — a 1917 public course on the D.C. waterfront, one of the ONLY courses in the city where a regular person can show up and play without a club membership or $300 in their pocket — is apparently getting the Tom Fazio treatment. Preservationists are pushing for a restoration of the original design instead. (source)
Fazio does exceptional work. This is the wrong assignment for it. East Potomac is a public asset that functions as one. The second it gets reworked to look like a resort, the quiet pressure to price-adjust the green fees follows. This isn’t about the architecture — it’s about who the course is for. The preservation argument here isn’t just sentimental nostalgia. It’s about keeping one of the few genuinely accessible courses in a major American city from becoming a backdrop.
👀 Scottie Scheffler And Caddie Ted Scott Had Some Kind Of Moment This Week
According to Fore Play, there was a notable on-course altercation or tense exchange between World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and his longtime caddie Ted Scott — the same Ted Scott who has been the spiritual anchor of that partnership since day one. Details are still vague but it got enough air time to become a full segment. (source)
The most telling part of this story is how fast it became news at all. That’s what being the undisputed best player in the world does — even a single visible moment of friction on the bag becomes a talking point. Could be nothing. Could be something. We’ll find out when the US Open starts Thursday and Ted either has the same energy or he doesn’t.
U.S. Open tees off at Shinnecock on Thursday, LIV is waiting on a call from a “prominent Australian,” and Phil’s spokesperson is billing overtime. See you next week.
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