Did Phil Mickelson Get Preferential Treatment At The WGC-Mexico Championship?
- Updated: March 14, 2018
Did Phil Mickelson get some preferential treatment down the stretch at the WGC-Mexico Championship? According to Tyrrell Hatton, who was playing with Lefty and Shubhankar Sharma in the final group, yes – yes he did.
Speaking on a Sky Sports podcast live from Bay Hill on Tuesday, Hatton expressed his displeasure with the events that unfolded and detailed what happened before Phil went on to capture his first victory since the 2013 Open Championship.
Apparently, a rules official approached the group after they had hit their tee shots at the 15th hole. Hatton and Sharma were informed by the official that they were put on the clock – but Mickelson was not.
Bunkered’s Michael McEwan transcribed what Hatton said:
“Sharma wasn’t that slow, to be honest. He was fine. But I feel like Phil was taking quite a lot of time on certain things. We’d had a warning earlier on in the round to speed up and we kind of did but not massively.
I’d just birdied 14 to tie with Phil and, you know, you’ve got four holes to go and it’s kind of crunch time. We had all hit good tee shots up 15 when one of the officials charged over and said, ‘Phil, you’re exempt but Tyrrell and Sharma, I’m going to start timing you.’
Phil goes, ‘Oh, he obviously likes me’. I was raging.”
What? Is this Phil-gate? If this is in fact true, which it sure seems like it is, it’s amazing. Everybody wanted to see Lefty back in the winner’s circle, but a rules official blatantly ignoring a member of the group while putting the other two on the clock is something special.
On the other hand, if Hatton is making this up, Phil will probably want to meet him on the 9th green at 9 for a little chat.
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