The Loop

Phil Mickelson got fired from his super-official Arizona State coaching job

January 29, 2015

Don't worry, Phil. It happens to the best of us.

Arizona State announced in November that Phil Mickelson had joined its golf team as an assistant coach to his brother, the head coach, Tim Mickelson. The move was mostly a recruiting play: By putting him on staff while his brother was in-between assistants, it allowed Phil to make some important calls to potential recruits.

Phil was asked about his position on Wednesday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and apparently it didn't end so well. The five-time major champ said his brother had "fired" him from the position. At least he doesn't seem to broken-up about it. Thanks to Golf Channel's Will Gray for spotting:

Q. In the offseason, you added assistant coach to your resume. Can you explain what that entailed and how cool it is to help out your Alma Mater and your brother?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yes, I recently got fired from that position. He needed some real help (laughter). We had developed a plan to where I could call some recruits. We weren't really going to say anything and hadn't said anything for a few weeks until one of the players had Tweeted it and it looked like there were some improprieties, which there weren't, so we had to publicly announce I was assistant captain; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to make the phone calls I had been making. As of the first week of January, Tim needed, my brother, needed a real assistant to help out with a bunch of the things going on with the traveling and I got fired.