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Phil Mickelson and Pat Perez are two prominent members of LIV Golf. Both defected from the PGA Tour in search of greener pastures when the opportunity arose, and both are happy with the new league. However, the similarities arguably stop there.
These two golfers don't have a friendly relationship. According to Alan Shipnuck, who wrote a book on Mickelson, the golfer nicknamed "Leftie" did something very offensive to Perez's wife.
He was asked about their feud in an #AskAlan mailbag for the Fire Pit Collective:
"Well, it ain't about money. While reporting my book on Mickelson, I kept hearing of his rift with Perez, a fellow San Diego native. They have a lot of history."
He noted that the rift didn't start with Mickelson and Perez's wife. Perez was a fan of Tiger Woods, and Woods and Mickelson were rivals on the course. Most fans of the game prefer one to the other, which can form rivalries:
"Perez has always fancied himself a Tiger guy, which means he has never been warm and cuddly toward Phil."
Shipnuck said that what caused Perez to rant about his LIV Golf companion was something else entirely:
"But what inspired Perez to spout off on various podcasts lately was Mickelson doing something that deeply offended Perez and his wife, Ashley. I approached Pat a couple of times to see if he’d go on-record, but he declined."
The incident was reportedly so bad that the golfer declined to talk about it, and Shipnuck refused to include the details in the book:
"A handful of players and caddies told me they heard of the incident directly from Perez, but the details are so inflammatory I didn’t feel comfortable putting the story in the book without direct confirmation. This whole situation is still clearly festering with Perez so we’ll see if he chooses to make the details public. If so, that will certainly set off a firestorm."
Shipnuck left it out for that reason, but it was enough to cause a potentially irreversible rift between the two golfers.
There is a growing rift between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf as the former contends with the latter growing and poaching some of its best golfers (Perez, Cam Smith, Brooks Koepka, etc.).
However, within LIV, there seems to be a bit of a rift forming, even if it's between two individual golfers, and it probably doesn't threaten the league's longevity.
When did Pat Perez and Phil Mickelson start golfing?
Before they were engaged in a feud as members of LIV Golf, these two were stars on the PGA Tour. They've both been in the game for a long time.
Perez began his professional career in 1997. He has four professional wins to his name.
Conversely, Leftie began his career in 1992 and is one of the oldest active golfers in the game. He has 57 wins so far, which showcases how good he's been in those three decades he's been active.
