Phil Mickelson allegedly tried to seduce Pat Perez’s wife by using a naked photo of himself — all while Perez was in a nearby bathroom completely unaware of the three-time Masters champion’s nefarious actions.
The incident, according to a Skratch report penned by Alan Shipnuck on Friday, occurred back in 2015, when Mickelson and Perez were getting ready to compete in the PGA Tour’s Barclays tournament at Plainfield CC in Edison, NJ.
Mickelson, Shipnuck reported, invited Perez and his then-wife, Ashley, to stay with him at his swanky villa near the course, and when the two arrived, the trio began drinking wine on the property’s patio.
However, “when Pat excused himself to use the restroom, Ashley says Mickelson took out his phone and showed her a full-body picture of himself naked with an erection while flexing one bicep,” Shipnuck wrote.
Ashley, Shipnuck added, claimed Mickelson then told her, “I’m going to leave my bedroom door open tonight. When Pat falls asleep I want you to come see me.’”
Ashley objected, and following the tournament, she told Perez about Mickelson’s advances. Perez then, according to Shipnuck, retold the story to so many in the golf world “that Mickelson’s genitals became an urban legend on Tour.”
Mickelson, who’s been married to his wife Amy for 30 years, went on to apologize to Perez twice for his behavior, per the Skratch report. The first happened while the two, both Arizona State alums, were at the famed Madison Club in Southern California. The next took place in a 26-minute phone call after Perez said on a November 2022 podcast that he had “a different hate for Phil than most people.”
“Throughout the 26-minute phone call, Mickelson alternated between contrition and saying he didn’t remember the details of that night,” Shipnuck reported.
At one point during the call, it appeared Mickelson tried to say that he believed he was merely topless — not fully nude — in the photo that he showed Ashley.
“Without admitting what he had done,” Shipnuck stated in the Skratch piece, “Mickelson apologized directly to both Pat and Ashley and said, ‘I can’t tell you how disgusted and embarrassed I am in myself.’”
Shipnuck went on to report that Mickelson — who was accused earlier this spring of making “nonconsensual and inappropriate physical contact” with a female employee at The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe — had made at least one other woman feel uncomfortable in recent years.
During that alleged incident, Mickelson asked “the most inappropriate questions about” the woman’s personal life and then propositioned her “in graphic detail,” according to Shipnuck,
“It felt like verbal rape,” the woman said of the encounter with the golfing icon, per Shipnuck.
Mickelson’s attorney Tom Clare released a scathing statement on the allegations to The California Post on Friday.
“A small segment of the golf media has decided that because Mr. Mickelson is a successful golfer, every detail of his private and family life is theirs to exploit,” the lawyer said. “Recycling mistakes he has already acknowledged as new reporting, and dragging private family matters into public view, is reckless. It is the pursuit of clicks at the expense of the truth. Do better.”
Clare said he shared that statement with Shipnuck prior to the publishing of the journalist’s article, but it was not included.
A spokeswoman for Mickelson added: “Some of the allegations circulating about Mr. Mickelson are false, and others revisit mistakes he has already acknowledged, publicly or privately. Stacking the disputed claims next to the ones he has owned does not make them credible. It instead contributes to a false and misleading narrative.
“No person, no article, and no book can present an accurate, complete, or personal story of the life Mr. Mickelson and his family have lived. His story, struggles, and recovery belong to him and to the people who have shared it closely alongside him.
“Recovery is not a straight line. Throughout their 35-year relationship, his wife, Amy Mickelson, has supported Mr. Mickelson and their family with extraordinary grace, unwavering love, and the belief that people are measured not only by their failures, but by what they do to make them right.
“Mr. Mickelson’s priority is to become the husband, father, and man his family deserves. Right now, that means giving his full attention to a private family health matter. He understands that parts of his life are public, but his family’s private matters are not.”
Mickelson has been away from the professional golf since February, when he announced he needed to tend to a family matter.
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