The Phil Mickelson camp has broken its silence in a big way, offering a strong denial of recent allegations and going on the offensive against Alan Shipnuck.
On July 1, a spokeswoman for Mickelson issued a lengthy statement denying allegations in Shipnuck’s recent story for Skratch Golf, accusing the golf legend of inappropriate behavior with women.
“Alan Shipnuck’s journalistic stock-in-trade is the anonymously-sourced drive-by shooting, heavy on implication but unsupported by any on-the-record sources,” the spokeswoman said in a statement provided to Front Office Sports, a response posted to X by FOS writer David Rumsey on July 2.
Phil Mickelson Denies Key Aspects of Alan Shipnuck Story
“Shipnuck has spent years attempting to position himself as the definitive authority on Phil Mickelson. This story demonstrates precisely why he is not.”
The 738-word statement mostly focuses on Shipnuck’s reporting that Mickelson was expelled from local golf clubs, particularly the claim that Mickelson’s wife, Amy, had him removed from the clubs.
“Mrs. Mickelson is not a public figure. She did not choose this spotlight, and there was no legitimate journalistic reason to drag her into it,” the statement continues. “Shipnuck nevertheless gave anonymous sources a platform to speculate about her marriage, her motives and decisions they had no firsthand knowledge of.
“Shipnuck’s reporting suggests that Mrs. Mickelson orchestrated Mr. Mickelson’s departuers from golf clubs. That is false. Mr. Mickelson has never been forced by his wife or by any golf club to surrender his membership. Those decisions were his alone.”
How Phil Mickelson Responded to Ashley Perez Incident
The statement also addresses the Ashley Perez incident, perhaps the most damning detail of the story. Perez, the ex-wife of former PGA Tour/LIV Golf golfer Pat Perez, recounted an uncomfortable interaction with Mickelson in which he allegedly showed her a nude photo of himself. Shipnuck’s report details the recounting of Mickelson’s apology to Pat and Ashley Perez.
“When Pat laid out the story that Mickelson had shown ‘naked photo’ of himself to Ashley, Phil responded, ‘You mean topless?’ Pat became increasingly irritated on the call at Mickelson’s obfuscation, saying, ‘That’s a real problem. If you don’t remember these things, that’s a (expletive) problem. That means you’ve got a lot of (expletive) going on.’” Shipnuck wrote for Skratch.
“During a private call in which Mr. Mickelson reached out to apologize for his behavior, he immediately challenged the central premise of that allegation by asking, ‘You mean topless?’
“That distinction matters. Mr. Mickelson’s willingness to apologize for his conduct should not be misconstrued as an admission of every allegation made against him. Responsible journalism does not amplify the most sensational characterization of a disputed event while minimizing the fact that the allegation itself was challenged.”
Mickelson’s camp also attacked Skratch Golf for its relationship to the PGA Tour. The outlet was initially created by the Tour, and the statement insists that the past link “(creates) a corporate relationship that reasonable readers may consider relevant when evaluating an extensive investigation into Phil Mickelson, one of the most consequential players to ever leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. A simple disclosure would have allowed readers to evaluate that context for themselves.”
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