Sports Digest: Phil Mickelson admits gambling addiction, but didn’t bet on Ryder Cup
MICKELSON: Phil Mickelson won’t be betting on football this year – much less the Ryder Cup – saying in a lengthy social media post Monday that he previously crossed the line from moderation into addiction and “it wasn’t any fun.”
“The money wasn’t ever the issue since our financial security has never been threatened, but I was so distracted I wasn’t able to be present with the ones I love and caused a lot of harm,” Mickelson wrote in the post.
His public admission of a gambling addiction comes more than a month after renowned gambler Billy Walters wrote in his book that Mickelson wagered more than $1 billion over the last three decades and wanted to place a $400,000 bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup while playing for Team USA.
Mickelson denied ever betting on the Ryder Cup, which starts next week outside Rome.
Mickelson has been relatively quiet since Walters did a media tour in August for his book, “Gambler: Secrets from a Life of Risk.” He returns to competition this week with Saudi-backed LIV Golf outside Chicago.
Walters said he formed a gambling partnership with Mickelson in 2008 that lasted until 2014. Two years later, Walters was indicted in an insider trading case that partly involved stock tips that prosecutors alleged he passed to Mickelson. Walters says he never gave Mickelson inside information and could have avoided prison if Mickelson had only testified on his behalf.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Las Vegas forward Alysha Clark was selected WNBA Sixth Player of the Year on Monday after averaging 6.7 points and 3.4 rebounds this season for the top-seeded Aces.
Clark, who made 44.4% of her field goals that included 38.6% from 3-point range, is the fourth Las Vegas player in the past five years to win this award. Dearica Hamby won it in 2019 and 2020 and Kelsey Plum in 2021.
SOCCER
SPAIN: Spain’s World Cup-winning women’s players don’t plan to end their boycott of the national team despite being called up for the squad by new coach Montse Tomé on Monday.
The players said they were caught by surprise by the call-up after they had made clear their decision not to play for the national team until their demands for change at the Spanish soccer federation were met.
Tomé selected nearly half of the 39 players who had signed a statement refusing to play for the national team — including 15 World Cup-winners — after former federation president Luis Rubiales refused to resign for kissing player Jenni Hermoso on the lips at the World Cup awards ceremony in Sydney last month. Rubiales eventually stepped down and coach Jorge Vilda was fired, but the players said their demands for deep reforms and new leadership had not been met yet.
Tomé said she decided not to call up Hermoso “to protect her” after the player was caught in the middle of the controversy that led to an institutional crisis and brought embarrassment to Spanish soccer.
AUTO RACING
INDYCAR: Chip Ganassi Racing is expanding to five cars for next year’s IndyCar season to accommodate 18-year-old development driver Kyffin Simpson.
The expansion for Simpson will give Ganassi three rookies in next year’s Indianapolis 500. Marcus Armstrong already won IndyCar rookie of the year this season, but is adding ovals to his schedule next year and will be an Indy 500 rookie. Same for Linus Lundqvist, who ran a street course, a road course and an oval as a replacement driver this season.
TENNIS
WTA: British qualifier Harriet Dart beat Jule Niemeier of Germany 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Guangzhou Open as elite women’s tennis returned to China on Monday after four years.
Tournaments were cancelled in China due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in 2020. The WTA then suspended its events in the country in December 2021 over concerns about Grand Slam champion Peng Shuai’s well-being after the Chinese player made sexual assault accusations against former vice premier Zhang Gaoli.
