PGA Tour can now focus on future of The American Express as Phil Mickelson fades away

If the announcement that Phil Mickelson was leaving The American Express tournament came in, say, June, without the backdrop of Mickelson’s recent controversial comments about the proposed Saudi Arabia-backed golf league, no one would have been surprised.

Mickelson was notably absent from tournament functions at the 2022 American Express, played last month in La Quinta, and that raised eyebrows of fans. Some behind-the-scene comments from officials around the Tour that Mickelson was indeed getting older and might have other interests in golf made it apparent Mickelson wasn’t going to be the long-term host of the La Quinta event.

But in a world where a 24-hour news cycle can contain two or three different turns in the same story, what fans and officials knew about The American Express and Mickelson two weeks ago seems like ancient history now. Whether it is the right thing to do or not, the momentum again Mickelson was snowballing fast, and it certainly seems like there was no way for Mickelson to stay with The American Express.

What we know for sure now is that Mickelson is out as host of the local event after three years, and the Mickelson Foundation is gone as well. The Mickelson Foundation was formed for the express purpose of handing out charity donations from the tournament.

But what we also understand is that while Mickelson is gone from the La Quinta event, that departure is probably only partially about the bad light Mickelson is bathed in these days after his comments about the “obnoxious greed” of the PGA Tour and the unsavory nature of the Saudi government that was backing the proposed rival league. Those comments come in addition to Mickelson’s willingness to still deal with the Saudis to try to change the financial structure of a PGA Tour that has made Mickelson and many others millionaires for playing golf.

Mickelson was likely leaving the La Quinta tournament one way or another. It could have been on his own terms, with the foundation still in place but Mickelson no longer on the billboards hawking the tournament on Interstate 10. It could have been him backing away to play in a PGA Tour Champions event that same week in Hawaii now that’s he’s approaching his 52nd birthday.

Instead, the departure from The American Express will always be linked with Mickelson’s dalliance with the Saudi tour, which showed that perhaps he was the greedy one who wasn’t able to do the right thing at the right moment. The tournament will be lumped in with Workday and KPMG and Callaway and who knows how many fans who have cut ties with Mickelson. That’s a bit unfair because nothing has been said specifically about American Express pushing for Mickelson to leave. In fact, American Express doesn’t actually have a contract with Mickelson, but with the PGA Tour itself.

What happens to Mickelson in the future is anyone’s guess, from an extended leave of absence to a suspension to an outright retirement. Anything seems possible.

The larger question in the desert is what will happen at The American Express. Unlike Mickelson, the tournament certainly isn’t going away. American Express made that clear last month with an extension of its title sponsorship deal through 2028.

Did Mickelson’s influence contribute to the stronger fields that have been coming to the event in the last few years? Or was that the power of the Tour and American Express? The tournament certainly has been trending up in recent years, and it would be great to see that continue even without Mickelson as the face of the event.

The PGA Tour has some work to do to make sure the 2023 American Express runs well. One would expect that the Tour didn’t drop the Mickelson Foundation without already having discussions about a new host organization, for instance. That organization needs local ties as well as the ability to work a deal with an operating organization like SportFive, which has been overseeing the tournament for five years.

The Tour has invested too much in the health of the La Quinta event to let it slip over the Mickelson departure. Expect another strong tournament with a strong field next year, just without Mickelson as the host.