Im pro golfer drug commercial professional#
Im pro golfer drug commercial series#

The combined number of MLB, NFL and NHL players ranked ahead of him on the impactful list totaled exactly…zero. Last week, ESPN ranked Mickelson at 13th in its annual World Fame 100. He’s among the supreme sports beings on the planet, as gauged by a variety of yardsticks. Understand that Mickelson, who has won five major championships and is the most-successful active player on the PGA Tour now that Tiger Woods’ wagon has been parked, isn’t just another questionably dressed pro in a white belt.

Said Finchem : “I have not spoken to him, but I have no comment about anything else at this point in time.” “I don't know anything to even comment on that.” “I'm not really able to talk about-I don't know,” Mickelson said, vaguely, about his future status on tour. The prospect of future sanctions from the tour, which does not disclose its disciplinary actions against players due to Finchem’s unilateral authority, seems unlikely. Incredibly, both Finchem and Mickelson told reporters last week at the Memorial Tournament that they had not spoken to one another about the SEC suit or any potential in-house punishment. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem Marta Lavandier/Associated Press How much did Lefty lose, and under what circumstances? How could a player with more than $50 million in annual income become beholden to a sports gambler? Did he wager on tournaments, which is also explicitly forbidden under tour rules? How can the tour let it all slide, with not so much as a public rebuke? Then, on Monday in Los Angeles, ESPN's Mike Fish reported that Gregory Silveira, another man with gambling ties, was sentenced to a year in prison for laundering $2.7 million of Mickelson’s money, which was used to used to repay the 42-time PGA Tour winner’s undisclosed gambling debts.

Im pro golfer drug commercial professional#

He owed money to a professional gambler, an act which has been the foundation of more than a few points-shaving scandals over the years.

To recap: Mickelson used tainted information to make a stock purchase that raised the ire of the feds, made a small fortune, and was forced to repay the proceedings. Mickelson has not been charged, because the SEC cannot conclusively prove that the stock tip he received from Walters was relayed via inside information the gambler received from a CEO who also owed him money. This after Mickelson admitted to authorities that he had pocketed close to $1 million in profits on the stock buy, which he paid back, with interest. Tour spokesman Ty Votaw two weeks ago told Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press: “ is something we're in the process of looking at and determining.”

How famous is Walters? Put it this way: “60 Minutes” has profiled him.Īmazingly, though two years had passed since the FBI first put the arm on Mickelson, the tour has continued with relative silence. The tour player handbook forbids players from associating with or having 'dealings with persons whose activities, including gambling, might reflect adversely upon the integrity of the game of golf.' That’s the most alarming part of the issue. According to the feds, Mickelson admitted to using a tip from Walters to buy stock that increased in value 40 percent overnight, and used the proceeds to repay debts owed to Walters from unspecified gambling losses. moves.įBI agents first showed up at the 2014 Memorial Tournament to question Mickelson about the Walters case, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Im pro golfer drug commercial series#

The tour’s mealy-mouthed reaction was condemned by some as another in a series of predictably blind P.R. It kept as quiet as a greenside gallery at Augusta National, continuing its long history under Finchem of burying its collective head in the sand as it relates to bad news, player discipline or public discussions of black-eye episodes. The case involved an alphabet soup of investigatory agencies, including the FBI and SEC, yet the acronym known as the PGA did what it does best. After two years of inquiry, Mickelson last month was named in a federal civil suit involving the nation’s most-notorious sports gambler, high-stakes Las Vegas legend Billy Walters. Five days after that statement, another spiked shoe dropped.įirst a little background. “It feels good that it's over and it's passed, and it's in the past. “I'm just glad it's over,” Mickelson said last week before playing at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio.