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Phil Mickelson is in Hong Kong to play the fourth event of the 2024 LIV Golf season. At the New Course of the Hong Kong Golf Club, Lefty was seen helping Caleb Surratt with his short game and his shots from the sand. On the subject, Mickelson said: "I want to try to be as kind as Seve was."
The fact that Phil Mickelson, captain of the HyFlyers team, was helping Caleb Surratt, a member of rival Legion XIII, did not go unnoticed by the media. Mickelson was asked about it during his press conference prior to LIV Golf Hong Kong and the 6-time major champion invoked another legend, Seve Ballesteros.
This was part of what Phil Mickelson said about his advice to Caleb Surratt (via Golf Monthly):
"I’m happy to do it. If somebody wants to reach out, I’m happy to help. A lot of people helped and supported me in my career early on. I was a kid who looked up to Seve Ballesteros and had an opportunity to play with him in my first professional event when I was 17 and played a practice round with him and had a remarkable day, and then later on we both represented Hugo Boss and we would do some photo shoots, and in between shots, we would go have chipping contests."
"I would ask him about chipping, and I would ask him about short game and some of the shots he would hit. What an incredible experience for me to be able to have contests with Seve, have the ability to ask him questions and to hear his thoughts, somebody I looked up to as a kid who I watched win the Masters when I was a kid. If somebody reaches out to me, I want to try to be as kind as Seve was."
A glimpse into Phil Mickelson's 2024 season
According to Golf Monthly, Phil Mickelson also talked about how the best way he can help LIV Golf right now is to improve his game as much as possible.
Mickelson has played in all three tournaments that LIV Golf has held during 2024. He finished 53rd at Mayakoba, with a score of 11 over, and 31st in Las Vegas, with a score of 2 under.
Mickelson fared much better at LIV Golf Jeddah. There he had the best finish of his LIV Golf career so far (T6) with a score of 10 under. However, because of the tiebreaker rules he was placed 9th, after the distribution of points.
His place in Jeddah gave him 11.33 points for the season's individual ranking. This ranks him 23rd, 68.67 points behind the current leader, Joaquin Niemann.
Mickelson's next starts will be the LIV events in Hong Kong and Miami, as well as The Masters Tournament.
