Phil Mickelson Tries To Walk Back Comments On PGA Tour 'Trending Downwards' After Head Of Lettuce Beats Out LIV Golf Stream

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Phil Mickelson's recent comments about the PGA Tour "trending downwards" in relation to LIV Golf were by no means surprising. After all, the Saudi-backed circuit is reportedly paying him north of $100 million. Nevertheless, his comments struck a nerve within the golf world, and now Lefty is attempting to walk his remarks back.

Mickelson's strongest comments yet about his feelings toward the PGA Tour came two weeks ago prior to the LIV event in Jeddah.

“For a long, long time, my 30 years on the PGA Tour, pretty much all the best players played on the PGA Tour. At least the last 20 years. That will never be the case again,” Mickelson said. “I think going forward, you have to pick a side. You have to pick what side do you think is going to be successful.

“And I firmly believe that I’m on the winning side of how things are going to evolve and shape in the coming years for professional golf. And I see LIV Golf trending upwards, I see the PGA Tour trending downwards and I love the side that I’m on.”

Phil Mickelson is going to bat for LIV Golf every chance he gets. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

What made his comments that much more interesting is that they came just a month after he said the PGA Tour and LIV Golf should "come together."

Phil Mickelson Attempts To Walk Back Comments

After Rory McIlroy, other PGA Tour players, and some in the media called Mickelson out for his downright absurd comments, he recently and very poorly attempted to take back what he said.

By no means did Mickelson apologize for his comments. While he questioned whether or not he should have said what he did, he just took it as another opportunity to promote LIV Golf.

“Maybe I shouldn't have said stuff like that, I don't know,” Mickelson said ahead of this week's LIV event in Miami.

“But if I'm just looking at LIV Golf and where we are today to where we were six, seven months ago and people are saying this is dead in the water, and we're past that, and here we are today, a force in the game that's not going away, that has players of this caliber that are moving professional golf throughout the world and the excitement level in the countries around the world of having some of the best players in the game of golf coming to their country and competing.”

According to No Laying Up, some people in the media center shared a round of applause for Mickelson after his comment.

LIV Golf Stream Loses To Lettuce

As Mickelson said, LIV Golf is not "dead in the water," and it never will be as long as the Saudis continue to pump millions of dollars into the product.

Mickelson's comment about LIV "being a force in the game" noting how the excitement level is only growing, however, is simply not true.

At one point during weekend play at the Jeddah event, more people were watching the YouTube stream of a head of lettuce than the actual LIV broadcast.

LIV Golf is still very much in the early stages of what it eventually wants to become, but losing to a head of lettuce is not the best of optics.

Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.