Mickelson out of PGA Grand Slam of Golf
The field for the PGA Grand Slam event already had an international flavour. And now with the only American bowing out, it has suddenly become completely international.
Phil Mickelson, the number-two ranked player in the world and this year’s Masters champion, has decided not to tee it up at the annual 36-hole tournament featuring the four major winners
of the season, citing the need to rest and the desire to spend more time with his family.
Mickelson will be replaced by South African Ernie Els, who won the Grand Slam event in 1997. The event will take place from 18 to 20 October at Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda.
Mickelson was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis last month and cited this as a reason for skipping the four-man event. He also took significant time off last season to spend more time
with his wife and mother, both of whom were diagnosed with breast cancer.
Mickelson had a rather average year on tour this year, his sole win of the season coming at Augusta National at the Masters. Of the 19 events he played, he made 17 cuts and finished the
season with only six top-10 finishes.
Mickelson will still play this week in the season-ending Tour Championship as well as the Ryder Cup, which begins 1 October. He is ranked 10th in the FedEx Cup point standings going into
the Tour Championship. If he wins it, he could win the FedEx Cup and the $10m payout that comes with it.
The other three players joining Els in Bermuda will be U.S Open champion Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland), British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa), and PGA Championship winner
Martin Kaymer (Germany).
It will be the first time since 1994 that the year-ending tournament did not have at least one American player in the field. That year, the field was made up of Australian Greg Norman,
Spaniard José María Olazábal, and South Africans Nick Price and Ernie Els.
In 2004, the year Mickelson won his first Masters, he shot a 13-under-par 59 at the Grand Slam event, tied for the lowest score ever in a PGA Tour event.
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