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US golfer Phil Mickelson is courting another controversy as famed sports bettor Billy Walters is reportedly including details about his relationship with him in his new book.
Walters went to prison in 2017 for insider trading. He has co-written his new book with Armen Keteyian, which will be published and released by Simon and Schuster on August 15, 2023.
Phil Mickelson apparently shares a complicated relationship with Walters. According to reports, Lefty once owed Walters $2 million in gambling debts. This was revealed in 2017 when Walters was found guilty of insider trading.
Walters was convicted on all ten counts, fined $10 million, and sentenced to five years in prison, while Mickelson was ordered to repay $931,738 in trading profits plus $105,292 in interest, but got away on a technicality.
The new book that will hit the store later in the summer might not exactly paint Mickelson in a good light.
"Phil had nothing to do with this" - Phil Mickelson's attorney
Billy Walters was released from prison in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was serving the rest of his five-year sentence at home.
In 2021, former US president Donald Trump commuted his sentence with one of his final acts in office. A White House statement claimed that Phil Mickelson, veteran swing coach Butch Harmon, and TV commentators David Feherty and Peter Jacobsen helped with the commutation.
However, Mickelson's attorney called the claim "erroneous" and stated that "Phil had nothing to do with this."
Alan Shipnuck, who wrote a biography of Mickelson that was published last year, stated on the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz in May 2022 that Walters declined to speak with him in order to save his thoughts for his own book.
Shipnuck said:
"Phil’s nervous about that book, and he probably should be,"
All fans can do now is wait for the release of the book.
