Phil Mickelson has done more than make money as an elite golfer. He’s gambled more than $1 billion over the last 30 years and wanted to place a $400,000 bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup while playing for Team USA, according to a much-anticipated book by gambler Billy Walters.
The betting estimates Walters offers—from his own detailed record from what he describes as two reliable sources—are detailed in an excerpt of Walters’ book, “Gambler: Secrets from a Life of Risk,” released August 22.
The FirePit Collective obtained an excerpt, according to the Associated Press. Walters, one of the most famous gamblers in the U.S., ended a betting partnership with Mickelson in 2014.
In 2016, the golf great served as a relief defendant in Walters’ insider trading case. Mickelson faced no charges other than to repay $1 million he made in the deal. Walters got a five-year sentence that could have been avoided had Mickelson told the truth, Walters said. He never told Mickelson he had inside information on Dean Foods stock.
“All Phil had to do was publicly say it. He refused,” Walters wrote. “The outcome cost me my freedom, tens of millions of dollars and a heartbreak I still struggle with daily. While I was in prison, my daughter committed suicide. I still believe I could have saved her if I’d been on the outside.”
According to Walters’ account, Mickelson did not seem to be in the game to actually win money based on the gambling tab just between 2010 and 2014:
- Betting $110,000 to win $100,000 on 1,115 occasions, and betting $220,000 to win $200,000 on 858 occasions. That alone comes out to just over $311 million.
- Mickelson in 2011 made 3,154 bets for the year and on one day (June 22) he placed 43 bets on Major League Baseball games that resulted in $143,500 in losses.
- He placed 7,065 bets on football, basketball and baseball.
“Based on our relationship and what I’ve since learned from others, Phil’s gambling losses approached not $40 million as has been previously reported, but much closer to $100 million. In all, he wagered a total of more than $1 billion during the past three decades,” Walters wrote.
“The only other person I know who surpassed that kind of volume is me.”
Walters met Mickelson for the first time at the 2006 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and formed a betting partnership two years later.
Most stunning to Walters, he writes in the excerpt, was a phone call from the Ryder Cup in 2012 at Medinah. He said Mickelson was so confident he asked Walters to bet $400,000 for him on the U.S. winning.
“I could not believe what I was hearing,” Walters wrote. “‘Have you lost your (expletive) mind?’ I told him, ‘Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose?’ The former Cincinnati Reds manager was banned from baseball for betting on his own team. ‘You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer,’ I added. ‘You’d risk all that for this?’ I want no part of it.’’
In an interview with Sports Illustrated last year, Mickelson was asked about speculation he was having financial troubles.
“My gambling got to a point of being reckless and embarrassing. I had to address it,” Mickelson said in the interview.
“Gambling has been part of my life ever since I can remember. But about a decade ago is when I would say it became reckless,” he said. “I don’t like that people know. The fact is I’ve been dealing with it for some time. (Wife) Amy has been very supportive of it and with me and the process. We’re at a place after many years where I feel comfortable with where that is. It isn’t a threat to me or my financial security. It was just a number of poor decisions.’’
Walters was so successful with his gambling operation that bookmakers often limited the amount of his wagers. He would partner with others who had larger limits. He wrote his partnership with Mickelson was a 50-50 split.
