Phil Mickelson bets topped US$1 billion, says former gambling associate

LOS ANGELES – Phil Mickelson has placed bets worth a total of more than US$1 billion (S$1.35 billion) during his career, including a US$400,000 wager on the outcome of the 2012 Ryder Cup, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book published in United States media on Thursday.

The revelations about the 53-year-old’s betting are contained in Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk by professional US gambler Billy Walters, a former close associate of the six-time Major winner.

In an extended excerpt from the book published by the Fire Pit Collective website on Thursday, Walters detailed frenzied betting by Mickelson over the past 30 years.

A biography of the American published in 2022 by US golf writer Alan Shipnuck reported that the golfer had racked up more than US$40 million in gambling losses throughout his career.

Mickelson in the same year acknowledged that he had struggled with gambling in the past, describing his betting as “reckless and embarrassing” and revealing that he had undergone “hundreds of hours of therapy” to address the issue.

However, Walters said the scale of Mickelson’s losses had been significantly under-reported.

“Based on our relationship and what I’ve since learnt from others, Phil’s gambling losses approached not US$40 million as previously reported, but much closer to US$100 million,” he wrote. “In all, he wagered more than US$1 billion during the past three decades.”

Their relationship ruptured when Walters was investigated and subsequently convicted and jailed over an insider-trading scam. Mickelson was not charged, but repaid almost US$1 million from money made in the deal.

Walters also said in the book that he never passed on inside information to Mickelson on the stock deal probed by authorities.

“All Phil had to do was publicly say it. He refused,” he wrote. “The outcome cost me my freedom, tens of millions of dollars and a heartbreak I still struggle with daily.”

Walters added that Mickelson had attempted to place a massive bet on the US to win during the 2012 Ryder Cup, looking to wager US$400,000 on an American victory. Europe eventually won.

He said he rebuffed the approach, comparing Mickelson to Pete Rose, the former baseball player and coach who was permanently banned from the sport in 1989 for betting on games he was involved in.

“I could not believe what I was hearing,” Walters wrote. “‘Have you lost your... mind?’ I told him, ‘Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose?’

“‘You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer’, I added. ‘You’d risk all that for this?’ I want no part of it.”

Mickelson denied Walters allegations in a statement on Thursday and said: “I never bet on the Ryder Cup. While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game.”

The 45-time PGA Tour winner triggered uproar in men’s professional golf in 2022 after becoming one of the earliest and highest-profile defectors to the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf circuit in a lucrative deal reportedly worth US$200 million. AFP