Late last year, Tiger Woods posted a two-second swing clip that sent the golf world into a frenzy.
Wednesday, a similar-length clip of Phil Mickelson was posted on social media. And while it won’t have the same wildfire spread as Tiger’s swing did, it did fan the flames of speculation.
The Fire Pit Collective posted to its Twitter account video of Mickelson hitting a driver, saying the action took place on Tuesday at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in California.
This would be the first public video of Mickelson hitting a shot since he said on Feb. 22 that he was taking time away from competitive golf.
“The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level,” Mickelson said in that statement. “I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”
While little has been seen of or heard from Mickelson over the last two months, his agent, Steve Loy, said earlier this week that Mickelson had registered for the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, and that he has applied for a release to compete in the first LIV Golf Invitational Series event.
“Phil currently has no concrete plans on when and where he will play,” Loy added. “Any actions taken are in no way a reflection of a final decision made, but rather to keep all options open.”
Mickelson is the defending champion at the PGA, which will take place May 19-22 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The first LIV event is scheduled for London, June 9-11.
Mickelson skipped the Masters Tournament for the first time since 1994 and hasn’t played an event since the Asian Tour’s Saudi International in early February. It was shortly after the Saudi event that Mickelson was quoted by a Fire Pit Collective writer as making disparaging comments about both the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed upstart league.